Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Drawing 2: Pilaster base of the Temple of Serapis
Browse
Reference number
SM volume 115/81b
Purpose
Drawing 2: Pilaster base of the Temple of Serapis
Aspect
Cross section and raking view of front, with measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:18
Inscribed
[Drawing] Exitus. est. b. 3. M[inuta]. 11. (‘The projection is 3 braccia 11 minutes’); b. 2. minuta. sunt. 4 (‘They are 2 braccia 4 minutes’);
.B[ase]. sub. istam. Coronamercen[n]atis (‘Base beneath this cornice of Maecenas’); [measurements]
Signed and dated
- c.1513/14
Datable to c.1513/14
Medium and dimensions
[Drawing] Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
To judge from its placement on the sheet, this drawing may have been executed after the one of the entablature. It is also of differing representational format, combining a cross section with a raking view, like many other drawings in the Codex Coner. The base is almost certainly that of the then-surviving pilaster, or more properly anta, on the building’s flanking wall, seen in various later drawings and prints depicting what still remained of the building (see e.g. Brothers 2002). Its design was a variation of an attic base, with an added astragal above the upper torus, and it was of colossal size, the plinth measuring 4 braccia 45 minutes (2.77m, well over nine Roman feet) in width. Previously, it was drawn twice by Giuliano da Sangallo in the Codex Barberini, as well as by the anonymous draughtsman of the Codex Strozzi, but these are all orthogonal representations. Michelangelo copied the base’s profile from this drawing.
RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB, 4Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 124–25)
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini, fols 15r and 68v (Hülsen 1910, pp. 26 and 71–72; Borsi 1985, pp. 104–08 and 228–36); [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1586 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 29)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 39v/Ashby 64; Fol. 48r/Ashby 81 Drawing 1 on this page
RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB, 4Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 124–25)
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini, fols 15r and 68v (Hülsen 1910, pp. 26 and 71–72; Borsi 1985, pp. 104–08 and 228–36); [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1586 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 29)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 39v/Ashby 64; Fol. 48r/Ashby 81 Drawing 1 on this page
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 43
Census, ID 49892
Census, ID 49892
Level
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