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  • image SM volume 115/145b

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