To an approximate scale of 1:10

.SPOGLIAE./ .XPI [= CHRISTI] (‘Of the Spoglia Christi’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines

Bernardo della Volpaia

The Spoglia Cristi of the caption, written again in antique-style capitals, refers to the church of Santa Maria in Campo Carleo, which was also known as Santa Maria a Spoglia Christo because of the image of a naked Christ at its entrance (Armellini 1942, p. 214). The church, before its final demolition along with much of the surrounding area in 1864 (Hülsen 1927, p. 319), was located at the corner of the Via Alessandrina with the one-time Strada dei Conti, which was close to the southwestern edge of the Forum of Trajan, and so the cornice may well have once come, as the caption suggests, from that complex (Packer 1997, pp. 91–92; Meneghini 1998, pp. 127–48). A meticulous topographical drawing in the Codex Escurialensis, labelled Spoglia Cristi and produced before this part of the complex was finally demolished in the 1520s (see Viscogliosi 2000, pp. 91–93), shows a Corinthian capital supporting a length of entablature that appears to have been used as a belfry. A later topographical drawing by ‘Pseudo-Cronaca’ features the same fragment but viewed from a different angle as well as one side of the church and a ramshackle portion of an ancient wall labelled the palace of ‘Nerva Troiano’ (see also Packer 1997, 1, pp. 91–92).

This entablature from the Spoglia Cristi was previously drawn, although orthogonally, in Giuliano da Sangallo’s Taccuino Senese, and it was also sketched orthogonally in a drawing by Giovanni Battista da Sangallo, which carries annotations stating it was based on the ‘little book’ belonging to Giuliano (libretto di Giuliano) and that it represented a part of the ‘temple-loggia of Nerva’ (tempio a loggia di Nerva). Another orthogonal drawing of the entablature was produced by ‘Pseudo-Cronaca’, where the same locational details are given. The Coner drawing, which depicts just the cornice, could document a part of the same then-extant entablature, although it could be of another fragment seen in or near the church. Its different format is also at odds with the drawing above it, and it may have been added to the sheet at a later moment.

An architrave from a similar entablature seen in this vicinity is depicted later in the codex (Fol. 65v/Ashby 112). The Spoglia Cristi cornice, which is highly comparable in composition to the one from the nearby Forum of Nerva (Fol. 89r/Ashby 148 Drawing 1), is said by Giorgio Vasari (Vasari–Milanesi 1878–85, 4, p. 444) to have been chosen by the architect Il Cronaca as the prototype for the exterior of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (Scaglia 1991).

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Siena, BCS, Ms. S.IV.8 (Taccuino Senese), fol. 35v (Borsi 1985, p. 301); El Escorial, Real Monasterio, 28-II-12 (Codex Escurialensis), fol. 46r (Egger 1905–06, pp. 119–20); [Giovanni Battista da Sangallo] Florence, GDSU, 1665 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, pp. 99–100; Frommel-Adams 1994, pp. 262–63; [‘Pseudo-Cronaca’] Florence, BNC, II. I. 429, fols 50r–v

Ashby 1904, p. 46
Ashby 1913, p. 205
Census, ID 60118

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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