To an approximate scale of 1:90

palatij. C .S. G. (‘Of the palace of the Cardinal di San Giorgio’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

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

Bernardo della Volpaia

Built for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, the Cardinal of San Giorgio (‘C.S.G.’) mentioned in the caption, this grand palace, located in Rome’s Campo Marzio district some six hundred metres southwest of the Pantheon, is now known as the Cancelleria (from its use as the papal chancellery from 1517 following its confiscation by Pope Leo X in 1513). It was begun in the 1490s and, when the Codex Coner was produced, it was unquestionably the largest and most spectacular private domestic building in Rome, as well as the first to have its façade, running to a colossal length in excess of thirty-one bays, fronted with stone and articulated with the architectural orders (Valtieri 1982; Frommel 1989b).

The façade with its alternating rhythm of bay widths is here represented by just three bays, a wider central one accommodating the fenestration and two narrower ones to either side. As depicted, the ground storey has a smooth dado with an expanse of channelled ashlar above divided in two horizontally by a plain band on which a framed, arched window rests; the piano nobile has a plain lower zone with channelled ashlar above overlaid with Corinthian pilasters raised on double pedestals, between which is a larger window with an entablature and a roundel above it; and the top storey is similarly articulated but the window is this time smaller and rectangular and is then surmounted by a small arched mezzanine opening positioned in the space above it.

The drawing, however, is an artificial construct of different elements of the façade, put together to create an impression of it as a whole. At first sight, it might appear to represent the façade’s three-bay right-hand corner, given that its right edge is fully completed whereas its left edge has the ashlar of the bottom storey and the entablatures of the two upper storeys left uncompleted, suggesting that the façade continues further in that direction. However, what is drawn corresponds not to the façade’s right-hand corner but, rather, to three bays from its middle, as is clear from the roundel above the piano nobile window and a small arched mezzanine window in the top storey, neither of which appear on the three-bay corner. By erroneously giving a portion of the façade’s centre a concluding right-hand edge – presumably to show the building’s profile – the drawing is comparable in conception to that of the ‘Palace of Nerva’ next to it, in that it conflates information about the design rather that showing the building as it is.

Notwithstanding its general level of accuracy, the drawing displays some minor errors. In the wide bay of the drawing, the piano nobile is shown as having vertical channels in the ashlar work just above the piano nobile window, which is unlike in the building where it has just horizontal channels. The ashlar work in the narrow bays to either side is also shown incorrectly, as a sequence of alternating rows that begins at the bottom with two blocks rather than three, while that in the central bay of the top storey is depicted erroneously by, for example, giving the course beneath the arched window two large and two small blocks rather than four blocks of equal size.

Apart from the Coner elevation, Bernardo della Volpaia is also known to have produced a plan of the Cancelleria, and this bears comments by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, indicating that both knew the palace well (see Buddensieg 1975, p. 97). Exactly when this plan was produced is not known but it could well have been around 1513, when Leo X appropriated the palace, and perhaps required a survey of it to be undertaken. Before this time, Bramante is said to have played some part in the building’s design (Vasari–Milanesi, 4, p. 155), and this earlier work may have also involved Bernardo, who could perhaps be the Bernardino ingegniere mentioned in a document of 1496 (Valtieri 1982, p. 18), this possibly explaining why in the codex the building is given such attention.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Bernardo della Volpaia] Florence, GDSU, 987 Ar (Buddensieg 1975, p. 97)

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 41v/Ashby 68; Fol. 70r/Ashby 119; Fol. 82r/Ashby 136

Ashby 1904, p. 35
Ashby 1913, p. 201
Günther 1988, p. 338
Clarke 2003, pp. 213–14

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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