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Drawing 2 (top right): Ceremonial helmet surmounted by a sphinx and plume of stylised feathers
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Reference number
SM volume 115/161ab
Purpose
Drawing 2 (top right): Ceremonial helmet surmounted by a sphinx and plume of stylised feathers
Aspect
View of side
Scale
Not known
Signed and dated
- c.1515
Datable to c.1515
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
This immensely elaborate design for a ceremonial burgonet, from c.1515, has a large peak divided into two parts, the top adorned with a horn-playing zoomorphic creature and the bottom decorated with a bearded mask. The long and pointed cheek guards and the flange at the back have foliate decoration, while the skull is embellished with a centaur wrestling with a lion, and rising from it is a spectacular crest in the form of a sphinx united with a cascading plume of stylised feathers, similar to the comb on one of the burgonets drawn overleaf (Fol. 97 and flap recto/Ashby 161 Drawing 5). It is highly finished unlike the sketches below, and unlike the neighbouring drawing it is fully completed.
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 73
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