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Drawing 2 (top right): Dolphin’s head with a shell in its mouth
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Reference number
SM volume 115/145b
Purpose
Drawing 2 (top right): Dolphin’s head with a shell in its mouth
Aspect
Perspectival view of side
Scale
Not known
Signed and dated
- c.1515
Datable to c.1515
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over traces of black chalk
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
A modern invention, the drawing is of the head of a dolphin that holds a scallop shell (or two) in its mouth with schematic waves depicted beneath. Depicting its subject from the side, it appears to relate to the drawing of a dolphin shown from the front at the page’s bottom (Drawing 5), which was probably intended as a design for a fountain. It is consistent in style with the other drawings executed during the codex’s second phase of production, which are often little connected directly with the antique.
Literature
Ashby 1904, pp. 70–71
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