Not known

[Drawing] 34 [early seventeenth-century hand]
[Mount] 165 [x2]

• c.1515
  Datable to c.1515

[Drawing] Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over compass pricks and stylus lines; on laid paper (232x160mm), loss of paper at left in former stitching fold, rounded corners at right, inlaid (window on verso of mount)
[Verso] Blank
[Mount] Frame lines, in pen and dark brown ink, 10mm apart
[Verso of mount] Window (225x154mm)

Bernardo della Volpaia

[Drawing] Anchor in circle topped with six-pointed star (version 6; cut at left) [Mount] None

This drawing, of c.1515, is most probably a design experiment rather than a specific record or project. Although set out on a carefully prepared grid, it is highly asymmetrical and varied in its repeating patterns. The top border consists of three elements, of which the two towards the left are of a conventional Greek key design. The third one at the right corner consists of concentric squares, which is then repeated several times downwards along the composition’s vertical right border, mostly in alternation with Greek key elements of differing design. A second horizontal band, parallel with the border at the top, joins the right border, leaving a space between them which is partly occupied by an ‘L’-shaped arrangement of guilloche ornament.

Patterns of Greek key decoration were generally used for floor – and also ceiling – designs. Ashby concluded that this design was a copy of a mosaic pavement presumably of ancient origin, but this is most improbable given its illogicalities and inconsistencies. It is far more likely to be an experimental exploration into how Greek key patterns might be used in some future project, with elements being varied when moving from one area to another. Although having an appearance of being unfinished, it is complete inasmuch as the stylus lines indicate that it was never intended to extend any further down the page or to the left.

Ancient floors adorned with Greek key decoration were well known in the early sixteenth century as is clear from certain surviving drawings. One, showing a corner of a design, appears in the Mellon sketchbook dating from just a little after the Codex Coner, and another of a large portion of a much more harmonious design is depicted on a sheet in the Uffizi attributed to ‘Pseudo-Giocondo’. A further drawing in the Lille sketchbook of a band of Greek key decoration accompanies two depictions of Bramante’s Cortile del Belvedere, a plan and elevation of the end exedra. A well-known ancient ceiling with Greek key decoration is that of the peristyle of the Temple of Mars Ultor, which may have suggested its use for Renaissance ceiling designs, such as Pinturicchio’s for the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral (1502–08) and Perugino’s for the Collegio del Cambio in Perugia (1497–1500).

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Domenico Aimo (Il Varignana), attr.] New York, Morgan Library, Codex Mellon, fol. 10r; [‘Pseudo-Giocondo’] Florence, GDSU, 1882 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 16); [Raffaello da Montelupo, attr.] Lille, Musée des Beaux Arts, Lille Sketchbook, fol. 17r (Lemerle 1997, pp. 294-95)

Ashby 1904, p. 74
Census, ID 47234

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

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