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Drawing 1 (left column, top): Ionic capital possibly once from the Scala Santa at the Lateran
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Reference number
SM volume 115/148a
Purpose
Drawing 1 (left column, top): Ionic capital possibly once from the Scala Santa at the Lateran
Aspect
Perspectival view, with measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:11
Inscribed
[Measurements]
Signed and dated
- c.1515
Datable to c. 1515
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink and faint grey-brown wash over black chalk and single vertical stylus line at centre
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
The Ionic capital depicted here is of fairly standard design, although distinctive features include the tiny band inserted between the astragal and the echinus, and the echinus and the abacus both being enlivened with egg-and-dart decoration. A similarly composed capital appears a little beforehand in a possibly related drawing in the Codex Strozzi, although this has a bead-and-reel moulding in place of the astragal, and in a slightly later depiction by Baldassare Peruzzi. The Codex Strozzi drawing gives the capital’s location as the portico of the Staircase of Christ (Al porticho della ischala di Christo), or, in other words, the Scala Santa at the Lateran before it was moved and altered in 1589.
The same capital is shown from the side directly below (Drawing 2), and the practice of depicting Ionic capitals through a frontal view set immediately above a side one is repeated in Drawings 3 and 4, as well as on Fol. 83r/Ashby 138, and it is also followed in the Codex Strozzi, which further suggests that the Strozzi drawings are of the same capital and are related to the Coner ones. Although the Coner drawing is relatively neat, it probably dates from c.1515 rather than c.1513/14, as it follows similar conventions to those seen in the other later drawings of capitals, especially the format of a frontal view that includes part of the shaft, and the greater use of hatching combined with a more limited use of wash. It was later copied in simplified form by Michelangelo.
RELATED IMAGES: [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1598 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 27); [Michelangelo] Florence, CB, 1Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 92–93)
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Baldassare Peruzzi] Florence, GDSU, 486 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, pp. 49–50; Wurm 1984, pl. 439)
The same capital is shown from the side directly below (Drawing 2), and the practice of depicting Ionic capitals through a frontal view set immediately above a side one is repeated in Drawings 3 and 4, as well as on Fol. 83r/Ashby 138, and it is also followed in the Codex Strozzi, which further suggests that the Strozzi drawings are of the same capital and are related to the Coner ones. Although the Coner drawing is relatively neat, it probably dates from c.1515 rather than c.1513/14, as it follows similar conventions to those seen in the other later drawings of capitals, especially the format of a frontal view that includes part of the shaft, and the greater use of hatching combined with a more limited use of wash. It was later copied in simplified form by Michelangelo.
RELATED IMAGES: [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1598 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 27); [Michelangelo] Florence, CB, 1Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 92–93)
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Baldassare Peruzzi] Florence, GDSU, 486 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, pp. 49–50; Wurm 1984, pl. 439)
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 71
Census, ID 47040
Census, ID 47040
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