Beskrivning: Motivkategori: Arkitektur, detaljer
Plats: Rom, Italien

Res. Katalogtext: Bortolozzi, Italian Architectural Drawings from the Cronstedt Collection, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2020 (cat.no. 107.)

Anon. late 16th-century French draughtsman, Hand B of the Cronstedt Collection
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, straightedge and freehand,
55.8 × 42.5/43 cm
NM H CC 1347v

PAPER: light, yellowish paper

WATERMARK: Tree 28 
WATERMARK OF THE SECONDARY SUPPORT: Pilgrim 7 

INSCRIPTIONS: Cornice de Campidole (at bottom left); Mezo canna (below, referring to the scale key) MEASUREMENTS: Roman palmi, once; scale of 5 palmi = 12.2 cm 

PROVENANCE: Carl Johan Cronstedt and descendants; Eric Langenskiöld; gift to the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm 1941 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: unpublished 

The drawing shows a perspectival representation of the entablature of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, designed by Michelangelo and built from 1563 onwards. Only one complete bay of the façade and front loggia in the west corner was built during Michelangelo’s lifetime. Michelangelo’s successor, Giacomo Della Porta, was commissioned by Tommaso de Cavalieri to design the balustrade crowning the building (Bedon 2008, 171–172). However, opinions diverge as to the authorship of the entablature of the colossal order. In August 1565, Della Porta was paid for “the wooden model of the cornice and capital of the pilaster-pier on the [western] corner of the palace” (Ackerman 1961, II, 55). On this and other evidence (i.e. a drawing in the Uffizi 7922 A, once ascribed to Vignola, showing the elevation of the two western bays of the palace complete to the architrave only), Morrogh suggests that the completed entablature is a counter-proposal by Della Porta to the master’s idea (Morrogh 1994, 154). However, the possibility that Della Porta’s model depended on Michelangelo’s own intentions cannot be excluded. It should be noted that in the drawing the lions’ heads are placed in correspondence to each console while in the built cornice they are in pairs in axis with the colossal pilasters. On the recto of the sheet the draughtsman depicts the perspectival elevation of the cornice at the base of the drum of St Peter’s, pinpointing a comparison between the two designs (Cat. no. 72). 

LITERATURE: Ackerman 1964, I, 54–74; II, 49–66; De Angelis D’Ossat, Pietrangeli 1965; Güthlein 1985; Morrogh 1994; Bedon 2008, 171–233; Bedon 2009.
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Titel (sv): Capitolium, Rom. Entablement
Titel (en): Rome: Palazzo dei Conservatori, perspectival representation of the main entablature of the façade, after 1565
Tidigare: Entablature from the Capitoline Hill, Rome