Not known

• c.1515
  Datable to c.1515

Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk

Bernardo della Volpaia

This elaborate all’antica ceremonial helmet is of the burgonet type that became popular across Europe in the early sixteenth century (Oakeshott 1980, p. 156) but was already established before around 1480, when it appears in imaginary portraits of ancient warriors such as a relief (Washington, National Gallery) of Alexander the Great by Andrea del Verrocchio (Butterfield 1998, pp. 230–31), and a drawing (London, British Museum) by Leonardo da Vinci (Popham 1946, p. 107). This Coner example has a large, fixed peak above the face opening, a pronounced comb on the top and a flange at the back at the base of the skull, which are all standard features of the type. It also has openings to expose the ears, like in other Italian helmets from the general period, such as the one made by Filippo Negroli (signed and dated 1543) in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which also has all the other features listed above too (Pyhrr–Godoy 1998, pp. 180–84). As for the helmet’s elaborate decoration, the peak is treated like a human face, with other ornaments including a ram’s head and menacing dolphins. The skull has an acanthus scroll at its front, a female protome at the rear and a trophy, reminiscent of the Trophies of Marius, at the side, beneath which languish naked captured warriors. The cheek guard is embellished with a scorpion and the crest bears a snake and has a prominent plume of schematic metallic feathers. In its ornamental elaboration, the helmet finds a parallel, again, in the Negroni example mentioned above, although the Coner drawing predates it by almost thirty years.

The drawing dates from around 1515 and is carefully finished. It has no close parallels and it may well be a copy of a helmet design devised by someone else, possibly a master armourer of the day, or, alternatively, it could be an experiment in helmet design undertaken by Bernardo della Volpaia himself. Such subjects were probably commonplace additions to books of architectural drawings, an example being Giuliano da Sangallo’s Taccuino Senese of c.1490, which has five pages of such subjects.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Siena, BCS, Ms. S.IV.8 (Taccuino Senese), fols 38r–v, 39v, 40r, 44v (Borsi 1985, pp. 302–10)

Ashby 1904, p. 73

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