To an approximate scale of 1:8

REPERTA. APVD./ SAVELLOS. (‘Discovered near [the house of] the Savelli’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

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

Bernardo della Volpaia

This fragment of cornice, as the caption – again in antique-style capitals – indicates, was discovered near the house of the Savelli or, in other words, close to the Theatre of Marcellus. It was seemingly also recorded in a sketch by Baldassare Peruzzi (GDSU, 537 Ar), which, like the Coner drawing, combines a section with a perspectival view, and, although mirrored, could be dependent on the same source. Peruzzi, as Ashby noted, labelled his drawing Corynthio superior (‘top storey Corinthian’) which implies that he believed it came from the theatre’s now-lost third storey. Reconstructions of the theatre from a little later by Peruzzi give it a third storey (see Calza Bini 1953, p. 45), although they do not indicate what the third storey’s order was. The Coner drawing has a very close counterpart in an engraving in Oxford by Enea Vico of 1547, which is of the same format, carries a comparable Latin inscription, and provides measurements that are also the same. From this, it has been concluded not unreasonably that the engraving is actually a copy of the Coner drawing (Nesselrath 1992, pp. 152 and 156), although it could be a copy, like another engraving by Enea Vico (see Cat. Fol. 62r/Ashby 105 Drawing 1) with which it is paired in a compilation in the V&A (Miller 2019, p. 776), of a drawing that was virtually identical. Previously, the drawing was copied again by Michelangelo.

The cornice is the first in a sequence of specifically Corinthian details. In composition, it is very like the one belonging to the entablature of the Forum of Nerva (Fol. 52r/Ashby 89), although the corona is more elaborate in profile. It is drawn above another cornice of very similar design, this being presumably the reason for their placement on the same sheet.

RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo], CB 2Ar: right side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 48; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 110–11); [Enea Vico] Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Larger Talman Album, fol. 30; London, V&A, E.1983-1899

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Baldassare Peruzzi] Florence, GDSU, 537 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 50; Wurm 1984, pl. 431]; GDSU, 603 Ar and 604 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, pp. 55–56)

Ashby 1904, p. 44
Nesselrath 1992, pp. 152 and 156
Census, ID 45106

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