To an approximate scale of 1:10

Sub. angulo. Coron[a]e. collocata. est./ colu[m]nam. Quadrata[m]. cu[m]. 9. Can[a]lis. (‘Under the corner of the cornice are found square columns with 9 flutes’); [measurement]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

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

Bernardo della Volpaia

This plan of the shaft of a half-column corresponds with what can be seen of it in the main drawing and shows it to be fluted in the way described by Vitruvius in his discussion of Doric columns (De architectura, 4, chapter 3, 9), with channels meeting at sharp arrises rather than filets. The number of channels, however, is inconsistent with Vitruvius, who recommended twenty for Doric columns as opposed to the twelve – corresponding with a half of the shaft – that are shown here. The drawing also reveals that the half-columns were larger than semi-circular, by half a flute, and that they were positioned with an arris at the centre rather than a hollow.

Columns with arrises rather than flutes are not especially common in ancient Roman architecture, an exception being the Temple of Hercules at Cori. Renaissance uses are even more unusual, but an early example, of similar date to the Codex Coner, is in the Caracciolo di Vico chapel attached to the church of San Giovanni a Carbonara in Naples, designed seemingly by an associate of Giuliano da Sangallo in c.1515. There is no direct equivalent for having an arris rather than a flute on the half-column’s main axis, but a parallel is provided by Michele Sanmicheli’s Palazzo Pompei in Verona (1530s), where the fluted Doric half-columns have filets but are arranged with a fillet rather than a flute in the middle (Davies–Hemsoll 2004, pp. 309–11).

The accompanying inscription refers to the end pilasters, which are referred to as ‘square columns’, although what it says is problematic. It describes them as having nine flutes whereas the early elevational depictions of the tomb by Giuliano da Sangallo (in the Taccuino Senese and Codex Barberini) show them with six – a quarter the number for a full column. In plans of the structure, however, the end pilasters are shown as being substantially wider than the half-columns (see Fol. 5r/Ashby 8), while in an elevational drawing by Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo the pilaster can be construed (despite the sheet being cropped at the side) as having originally been shown with nine flutes, in which case the Coner annotation would appear to be correct.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Siena, BCS, Ms. S.IV.8 (Taccuino Senese), fol. 14r (Borsi 1985, pp. 267–70); [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 38v (Hülsen 1910, p. 55; Borsi 1985, pp. 198–200); [Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo] Florence, GDSU, 2054 Ar (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 2

Ashby 1904, p. 42
Census, ID 45042

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