To an approximate scale of 1:20

.VLTIMA. CORONA. P[ALATII]. C[ARDINALIS]. S. G[IORGII] (‘Top cornice of the Palace of the Cardinal of San Giorgio’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash

Bernardo della Volpaia

This entablature has a compositional format ultimately derived from the top storey of the Colosseum (cf. Fol. 63r/Ashby 113), via other late fifteenth-century buildings in Rome such as the Palazzo Venezia, and what makes it instantly recognisable is the placement of massive corbels in the frieze, which is set between a relatively undistinguished architrave and cornice. The caption, written in all’antica capitals, indicates that the entablature is the one from the top storey of the palace of the Cardinal of San Giorgio (at that time Cardinal Raffaelle Riario), the late fifteenth-century palace now known as the Palazzo della Cancelleria (cf. Fol. 32r/Ashby 51 Drawing 2). As the building has two very similar top-storey entablatures with brackets in the frieze, one belonging to the façade and the other to the courtyard, it is not absolutely clear which is being represented here since the drawing corresponds precisely to neither. As drawn, the architrave, is closer to that in the courtyard in having no intervening moulding between the fascias, while the cornice is closer to the one on the façade, which is the more elaborate of the two. On balance, however, it is more likely to depict the façade entablature, especially given this greater elaboration and its greater public prominence, and the fact that it is depicted as an exterior corner. The inaccurate treatment of the architrave may thus be a simple error although it could be the result of copying a preliminary scheme that was slightly adjusted in execution. Moreover, although the drawing appears to show the entablature’s corner, the depicted corner differs from the building’s actual corner, which has the final corbel canted out at forty-five degrees. A likely explanation of this anomaly is that the drawing is a type of montage that combines a view of the front with a profile for ready readability, and a comparable representational strategy is seen in the depiction of the palace’s façade (Fol. 32r/Ashby 51). The drawing was partially copied by Michelangelo.


RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB 4Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 124–25)

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 32r/Ashby 51; Fol. 41v/Ashby 68; Fol. 70r/Ashby 119

Ashby 1904, p. 44
Census, ID 226559

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