Drawings Attributed to Andreas Coner.

31

closely paralleled by a drawing in the Uffizi (1735) by an unknown artist,
but after Bramante (Ferri, Indice, p. 185), but in this the pediments are not
shown, while both the rectangular central opening and the lateral niches
are a little larger, and the proportions not so good.
It will be noticed that in both these drawings the measurements do not
go beyond the capitals of the small columns of the third order : and it is
precisely from this point that uncertainty as to the intentions of Bramante
reigns. Probably this was the height that had been reached at his
death.
From what Serlio (op. cit. iii. 140, iv. 34) says, one might expect the so-
called Palladio motive, i.e. an arch over the central intercolumniation of the
small columns (Geymuller, op. cit. 76), which there is some slight effort
to realize in one place.
Uffizi 1735, however, shows a flat entablature over the central columns
with an arch springing from the small pilasters on each side, its crown
rising to the level of the capitals of the large main pilasters of the order :
while Coner shows an oblong panel filling up, apparently, the whole
space between the small and the large columns, which is not perhaps very
satisfactory.
A drawing by Antonio da Sangallo the younger (Uffizi 1408), who
was entrusted with the continuation of the work after Bramante's death,
shows three different variations, in all of which the solution indicated by
Coner is adopted, but in one of which the oblong panel is divided vertically
into three, while the other two show different forms of the unbroken panel.
This drawing was, however, not made until after the collapse of part of the
original structure of Bramante in the time of Paul III. (Appendix IV.,
p. 83), for the travertine arcades of the Doric order of the ground floor
are strengthened by brick arches, while the second (Ionic) order has
assumed the form which it has at the present day, the space between the
pilasters being filled by a solid wall of brickwork, only relieved by a round-
headed window in the centre.
The original state of the building is indeed almost unrecognizable.
The lower (Doric) order is preserved in travertine at the end near the
Teatro, and so are the pilasters of the second (also in travertine): while
the third order (in peperino) may be seen at the end nearest the library.
The fourth is a later addition to Bramante's plan, though in part dating
from before 1565.