DOI article:
Ashby, Thomas: Sixteenth-century drawings of roman buildings attributed to Andreas Coner
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70293#0022
IO
The British School at Rome.
shading is darker, while the execution is decidedly inferior (cf. especially
99, 101, 103). They were certainly inserted in the sketchbook before it
was broken up and mounted, and probably before it was numbered.
They are not indeed very much later in date than the original series:
from their style and the character of the handwriting, they would appear to
belong to the middle of the sixteenth century ; and this view is confirmed
C1) by the fact that the artist saw one of the internal bases of the temple
of Mars Ultor in the church of S. Marco (1300, whereas Coner had drawn
it in its original position (124^), and (2) by the legend to the two capitals
of No. 142 in casa [di] M. Anton\i\etto delle Medaglie—a dealer in antiquities,
who appears as the owner of a house on the slopes of the Quirinal in 1546,
and is several times mentioned by Pirro Ligorio; further by a curious
parallelism between the sketchbook in its enlarged form and some drawings
by an unknown artist, formerly in the Destailleur collection, and now in
the Kunstgewerbemuseum at Berlin. Three of these drawings (the only
ones which appear to have any relation with Coner) are reproduced below
(Figs. 3, 4, 6) by the kind permission of Dr. Jessen, Director of the Library
of the Kunstgewerbemuseum, and a table of comparison is given in
Appendix III.
The style of the Berlin drawings (which are roughly executed in
pen and ink) is entirely different, but the legends (and as a rule the points
of view) are identical, and the absence of any objects which do not
occur in our sketchbook makes the relation more striking.1
The later hand seems to have known the sketchbook of Giuliano da San-
gallo, which was till lately in the Barberini Library, and is now in the Vatican
(Barb. Lat. 4424—formerly xlix. 33) after additions had been made to it by
his son Francesco not earlier than 1540 (Fabriczy, Die Handzeicknungen
Giulianos da Sangallo, 14 sq.). Nos. 6, 8A, 9 are probably copied from
drawings by Francesco (43', 38'), while 7 is copied from a plan by
Giuliano (29').
It will be seen from the above remarks that the sketchbook in its
present state presents many problems, for which it may not be easy to
find a solution. I cannot claim to have discussed them exhaustively-
that I leave to better judges in these matters—but they certainly add to
1 I am informed by Dr. Gustav Kiihl, of the library of the Kunstgewerbemuseum, that these
drawings are not, in all probability, by the unknown French artist who generally passes under the
name of the Anonymus Destailleur, and that they came from a separate volume, which did not
form part of the series of his works.
The British School at Rome.
shading is darker, while the execution is decidedly inferior (cf. especially
99, 101, 103). They were certainly inserted in the sketchbook before it
was broken up and mounted, and probably before it was numbered.
They are not indeed very much later in date than the original series:
from their style and the character of the handwriting, they would appear to
belong to the middle of the sixteenth century ; and this view is confirmed
C1) by the fact that the artist saw one of the internal bases of the temple
of Mars Ultor in the church of S. Marco (1300, whereas Coner had drawn
it in its original position (124^), and (2) by the legend to the two capitals
of No. 142 in casa [di] M. Anton\i\etto delle Medaglie—a dealer in antiquities,
who appears as the owner of a house on the slopes of the Quirinal in 1546,
and is several times mentioned by Pirro Ligorio; further by a curious
parallelism between the sketchbook in its enlarged form and some drawings
by an unknown artist, formerly in the Destailleur collection, and now in
the Kunstgewerbemuseum at Berlin. Three of these drawings (the only
ones which appear to have any relation with Coner) are reproduced below
(Figs. 3, 4, 6) by the kind permission of Dr. Jessen, Director of the Library
of the Kunstgewerbemuseum, and a table of comparison is given in
Appendix III.
The style of the Berlin drawings (which are roughly executed in
pen and ink) is entirely different, but the legends (and as a rule the points
of view) are identical, and the absence of any objects which do not
occur in our sketchbook makes the relation more striking.1
The later hand seems to have known the sketchbook of Giuliano da San-
gallo, which was till lately in the Barberini Library, and is now in the Vatican
(Barb. Lat. 4424—formerly xlix. 33) after additions had been made to it by
his son Francesco not earlier than 1540 (Fabriczy, Die Handzeicknungen
Giulianos da Sangallo, 14 sq.). Nos. 6, 8A, 9 are probably copied from
drawings by Francesco (43', 38'), while 7 is copied from a plan by
Giuliano (29').
It will be seen from the above remarks that the sketchbook in its
present state presents many problems, for which it may not be easy to
find a solution. I cannot claim to have discussed them exhaustively-
that I leave to better judges in these matters—but they certainly add to
1 I am informed by Dr. Gustav Kiihl, of the library of the Kunstgewerbemuseum, that these
drawings are not, in all probability, by the unknown French artist who generally passes under the
name of the Anonymus Destailleur, and that they came from a separate volume, which did not
form part of the series of his works.