To an approximate scale of 1:10

planta. Triglifo[rum] (‘Plan of the triglyphs’)

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

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

Bernardo della Volpaia

The plan, the first of two auxiliary drawings of the tomb once near the Ponte Nomentano, shows two abutting triglyphs at one of its corners, although it is not fully consistent with the main drawing in their relationship to the supporting order, and it is joined (rather confusingly) to a partial view of one of their fronts. It establishes that the entablature of each of the tomb’s faces ended with a triglyph, rather than, as Vitruvius had advised (De architectura, 4, chapter 3, 2–3), with a part of a metope, which means that the final triglyphs are not aligned with the centres of the pilasters beneath them. Because the triglyphs above the intervening half-columns are placed above their centres (this shown wrongly in Drawing 1), it follows that the three bays are unavoidably of unequal size. The side bays, according to an elevational drawing by Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo, were set out with two intervening triglyphs and three metopes, and this implies that the central bays, which are shown to be narrower in early plans (see Fol. 5 verso of flap/Ashby 8A), probably had one intervening triglyph and two metopes.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo] Florence, GDSU, 2054 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 102; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, 1, p. 215)

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 5r/Ashby 8; Fol. 45r/Ashby 75 Drawings 1 and 3

Ashby 1904, p. 42
Census, ID 45041

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