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Drawing 4 (bottom right): Window aperture from an unidentified tomb building
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Reference number
SM volume 115/150d
Purpose
Drawing 4 (bottom right): Window aperture from an unidentified tomb building
Aspect
Orthogonal elevation
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:10
Inscribed
[Measurements]
Signed and dated
- c.1515
Datable to c.1515
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink and light brown wash over stylus lines and compass pricks
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
This drawing is almost certainly of a window from an ancient mausoleum, perhaps one of those lining the Via Appia Antica or Via Latina. In combining a narrow opening (about 17 minutes or 15 centimetres in width) with an eared architrave, it is of a type that sometimes appears in mausolea, as exemplified by a drawing at Windsor of a tomb located on the Via Latina and by another drawing in Berlin of a different tomb. Its eared frame is surrounded by decoration that includes a winged lion and scrolling tendrils, which suggests that the frame was to be seen on the building’s frescoed interior.
The design recorded here was added only after the drawing of the vase next to it had been completed, preventing the top left-hand corner from being shown. Like its neighbour, it dates from around 1515.
OTHER DRAWINGS MENTIONED: [Anon. Portuguese draughtsman] Windsor, Royal Library, RL 10357 (Campbell 2004, I, p. 322); [Anon. French draughtsman] Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, HdZ 4151, fol. 69r
The design recorded here was added only after the drawing of the vase next to it had been completed, preventing the top left-hand corner from being shown. Like its neighbour, it dates from around 1515.
OTHER DRAWINGS MENTIONED: [Anon. Portuguese draughtsman] Windsor, Royal Library, RL 10357 (Campbell 2004, I, p. 322); [Anon. French draughtsman] Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, HdZ 4151, fol. 69r
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 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