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Drawing 1 (top): Cornice once in Piazza Sant’Eustachio
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Reference number
SM volume 115/83a
Purpose
Drawing 1 (top): Cornice once in Piazza Sant’Eustachio
Aspect
Perspectival elevation of a corner with an overlapping section, with measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:18
Inscribed
.IN. PLATEA. S. STATII. (‘In Piazza Sant’Eustachio’); [measurements]
Signed and dated
- c.1513/14
Datable to c.1513/14
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
This drawing, according to its caption written in antique-style capitals, is of an ancient cornice that was seen in the Piazza of ‘Santo Stazio’ (a corruption of the name Sant’Eustachio), and, Ashby suggested, it may have come from the nearby Baths of Nero. The cornice is otherwise unknown and no other representations of it survive. It is similar in design, however, to one said later on to have been discovered near the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone in Piazza Navona, which is recorded in a drawing in Saint Petersburg; and it also closely resembles the cornice of the Temple of Serapis (Fol. 48r/Ashby 81), being almost identical in the sequence of its mouldings and its ornament, although it is far smaller, being 1 braccio 15 minutes in height (0.73m) rather than 3 braccia (1.75m). In addition, it is depicted in a similar manner to the Temple of Serapis entablature drawing, which was originally on a facing page, their proximity suggesting a wish to group entablatures according to type.
It could be that the discovered fragment was a corner of the cornice, which would be why it was depicted according to the convention that shows it as a corner frontally, and not, as is more usual in Coner representations of cornices and entablatures, as a section combined with a raking view of the front (as in Drawing 4). Showing it in this way, however, does not allow the profile to be represented at all accurately, which would be why, exceptionally for this drawing, the profile was recorded in an overlapping drawing on the right. The sectional portion of the drawing was copied by Michelangelo.
RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB 4Av: right side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, pp. 49–50; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 122–23)
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Anon.] Saint Petersburg, Hermitage, Codex Destailleur B, fol. 26r (Lanzarini–Martinis 2014, pp. 102–03)
It could be that the discovered fragment was a corner of the cornice, which would be why it was depicted according to the convention that shows it as a corner frontally, and not, as is more usual in Coner representations of cornices and entablatures, as a section combined with a raking view of the front (as in Drawing 4). Showing it in this way, however, does not allow the profile to be represented at all accurately, which would be why, exceptionally for this drawing, the profile was recorded in an overlapping drawing on the right. The sectional portion of the drawing was copied by Michelangelo.
RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB 4Av: right side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, pp. 49–50; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 122–23)
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Anon.] Saint Petersburg, Hermitage, Codex Destailleur B, fol. 26r (Lanzarini–Martinis 2014, pp. 102–03)
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 44
Census, ID 45073
Census, ID 45073
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