Drawings Attributed to Andreas Coner.

7

majority of which are in the Casa Buonarroti at Florence, though two or
three leaves have found their way into the British Museum by purchase
from Comm. C. Buonarroti in 1859.
The correspondence in subject, in mode of treatment, and in point
of view is surprising, and too striking to be accidental ; cf. infra, p. 60
and Plates A, B, also Appendix II., where a tabular statement (which
renders the mention of each individual case unnecessary) will be found :
and as these are the only copies (whether from the antique or from
Renaissance buildings) known to exist among the architectural drawings of
Michelangelo, the question of their authenticity at once arises. They are
certainly not directly taken from the buildings themselves : for the similarity
between them and the drawings of Coner renders it certain that either
they were copied from Coner, or that both derive from a common
archetype. The presence of careful measurements in Coner's drawings,
taken with their invariable absence in those attributed to Michelangelo,
seems to exclude the possibility that Coner can have been the copyist,
while, on the other hand, that the artist of the red chalk drawings copied
from Coner seems to be clearly proved, not merely by the close corre-
spondence both in the subjects treated, and in the order in which they
occur (taken in conjunction with the absence of measurements in the
former series), but by the fact that in two cases the supposed Michelangelo
betrays himself as an unintelligent copyist.1
(a) Brit. Mus. 1859-6-25-560-2 (Berenson, The Drawings of Florentine
Painters, vol. ii., p. 89, No. 1505), which is reproduced in our Plate B,
contains amongst other subjects a sketch of a composite capital sur-
mounted by a bare architectural profile. This proves to be identical with
Coner, 92a (the circular temple at Tivoli). Instead, however, of drawing
the entablature with the inscription, the artist has contented himself with
copying its profile, which starts immediately to the right of the central
volute in Coner's sketch.
(0 Casa Buonarroti, ' cornice ' 23, No. 3 (left half reverse) contains three
subjects taken from Coner, of which one is evidently copied from Coner,
83^. In Coner's sketchbook this forms in reality one subject with 83a,
a cornice from the Piazza di S. Eustachio represented both in elevation
and in profile. The artist of the red chalk drawings has, however, entirely
omitted the elevation of the cornice, and has associated with the profile
1 I owe this point to Mr. H. Stuart Jones.