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Drawing 2 (top right): Composite capital seen in the Lateran Baptistery
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Reference number
SM volume 115/144b
Purpose
Drawing 2 (top right): Composite capital seen in the Lateran Baptistery
Aspect
Perspectival view
Scale
Not known
Inscribed
Santoianj (‘San Giovanni’)
Signed and dated
- c.1515
Datable to c.1515
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk and single vertical stylus line on axis of symmetry
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
More akin to the Composite than the Ionic, this capital has an abacus with a concave face, volutes that emerge from above the echinus, and a short neck ornamented with acanthus and palmettes supporting the volutes above them. The diminutive caption, like that of the drawing below it (Drawing 4), gives its location as ‘San Giovanni’, which probably refers likewise to the Lateran Baptistery, but, although it is similar to the capitals of the lower circuit of columns, these have proportions that are considerably taller.
The drawing is neatly aligned with the one below it and the two have the same idiosyncrasy of depicting the corners of the abacus in an extremely distorted perspective. Both were probably copied, therefore, from the same source. Both date from the second phase of the codex’s production, as is indicated in particular by the hatched treatment of the section through the shaft (cf. Fols 83r and 84r). The script of both their captions is comparable with that on other pages of the codex, indicating that Bernardo della Volpaia was the draughtsman. This drawing was sketchily copied in modified form by Michelangelo, who corrected the perspective of the abacus, and combined it with a drawing of the capital beneath.
RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB, 1Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 92–93)
The drawing is neatly aligned with the one below it and the two have the same idiosyncrasy of depicting the corners of the abacus in an extremely distorted perspective. Both were probably copied, therefore, from the same source. Both date from the second phase of the codex’s production, as is indicated in particular by the hatched treatment of the section through the shaft (cf. Fols 83r and 84r). The script of both their captions is comparable with that on other pages of the codex, indicating that Bernardo della Volpaia was the draughtsman. This drawing was sketchily copied in modified form by Michelangelo, who corrected the perspective of the abacus, and combined it with a drawing of the capital beneath.
RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB, 1Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 92–93)
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 70
Census, ID 46906
Census, ID 46906
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Codex Coner has been made possible through the generosity of the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, Berlin.
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk