P 1 : KsF
0521551331 c 01 -p 3 a CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 10 : 18
CATALOGUE 55 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 265Third line
I. A staircase in elevation and section comprised appar-
ently of a curved – or perhaps semi-circular – central flight
of four high steps with, at the left, a curving side flight of
steps with lower risers whose number is not clear. At the
right of the sketch, the side flight seems to be shown in
section and can be seen to comprise six steps.
J. An abbreviated staircase, related to I.
K.An ambiguous form. It could be (a) an abbreviated
garland, related to A; (b) a segmental pediment, an alter-
native to the triangular pediment in A; (c) a half step as
at the top of I.
The compiler is inclined to favour the last option, which would
also explain its proximity to J.Fourth lineL.A plan of a curved chapel, fronted by paired columns,
on a small scale.
The alternative, that the paired columns belong to M, indicating
paired columns being tried on the curved part of the chapel wall,
rather than the single column indicated on the curved part in
Misalso possible, but the columnar cluster that such a scheme
would entail seems unlikely for Michelangelo.
M.Partly intersecting L, two curved chapels in plan sep-
arated by a straight wall with two columns before it and
one at either side.
N.Part of the staircase I in section, showing four high
steps with the platform above. This seems more likely
than the alternative, that this is a half elevation of the
central staircase.
O.The right-side flight of the staircase I in modified sec-
tion and partial elevation?. However, this seems to com-
prise only five steps, which would indicate a modification
of I.Discussion
The recto has been connected by most students with
the design of the second floor windows of the court-
yard of Palazzo Farnese, which all early sources attribute
to Michelangelo. It is hardly necessary to enumerate the
very close similarities between them. Once the design was
firmly established, of course, the execution and installa-
tion of the window frames would have been carried out
bythe executing architect, Giacomo Vignola. The date
of Michelangelo’s designs is uncertain. Although any day-
to-day engagement with Palazzo Farnese may well have
ceased after155 0,asAckerman claimed, there would be
no bar to Michelangelo’s having made drawings for vari-
ous details after this time.
The present sheet was probably prepared in CB
65 A/B 257 /Corpus 548 (black chalk, 422 × 269 mm), asthe compiler suggested in 1978 , dating it to c.155 0.De
Tolnay retained for CB 65 Aadating in the15 2 0s, but
the page size, drawing style, and architectural forms indi-
cate a much later date, one supported by the watermark
(Roberts Crossbow B, found on paper used by Michelan-
gelo in the period c. 1555 – 60 ). Morrogh, 1994 ,pro-
posed a still later date for CB 65 A, c.15 6 0, and sug-
gested that it was drawn for the aedicule in the vestibule
of the Conservatori; he also noted its design similari-
ties with the present drawing and Cat. 56 .However,a
drawing by Michelangelo for this aedicule does exist (CB
97 Arecto/B 167 /Corpus 616 ;brush and wash over black
chalk, 283 × 255 mm), but it is simple and severe, and
there is no need to connect CB 65 A with the Capitoline
scheme. Nor does CB 65 A seem to the compiler to be as
late as c.15 6 0, although it is not easy to date the work of
Michelangelo’s last decade by style.
The recto drawing presents rich carving and the motifs
are of great delicacy. These facts affirm that it was made for
aproject that was lavishly funded and corresponds both
to the very elaborate cornice that Michelangelo designed
for Palazzo Farnese, of which a full-scale version in wood
washoisted into place in July15 4 7,sothat Pope Paul III
could judge its effect, and to the upper-storey courtyard
windows as carved, which are among the most elaborate
of the period. Although the present design was not taken
over fully for Palazzo Farnese, it has many features in com-
mon with these windows. However, because the present
sheet contains on its verso drawings datable to155 9– 60 ,
and because its provenance is from Casa Buonarroti, it is
reasonable to assume that it was not given to Vignola –
the executive architect of Palazzo Farnese – to follow
and remained in Michelangelo’s possession. It would be,
therefore, one among presumably numerous drawings
that Michelangelo made for these window-frames, not
the final design.
In 1965 a, although agreeing that the drawing on the
recto of the present sheet was made for Palazzo Farnese,
De Angelis d’Ossat connected the recto of the com-
panion sheet, Cat. 56 ,with the Capitoline palaces. His
acute insights were developed in detail and with new
documentation by Morrogh, who demonstrated that the
final design of Palazzo dei Conservatori was arrived at
byMichelangelo only at the very end of his life, rather
than in the late153 0s, as Ackerman had argued. Con-
struction of the Conservatori began only months before
Michelangelo’s death, and it would be contrary to his
habits to have busied himself with detailed designs many
years before they were required, or, had he done so, to
have stuck to them. Morrogh pointed out that forms very
close to those in the present drawing are found in the