The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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374 COPIES OF ARCHITECTURE CATALOGUE 105

elevation that also shows part of the plan. It was engraved

again in 1683 by Val ́erian Regnard both in strict elevation ́

(Ackerman, 1961 , fig. 71 b) and in plan; a drawing in

Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett 20. 976 ; pen and ink with

mauve wash, 15 6× 170 mm; published by Noehles,

fig. 56 , and also illustrated in Argan and Contardi,

fig. 474 ), corresponds closely with Regnard’s elevation

and may well have been its source. Another copy of

the model in plan is the drawing by Giovanni Vincenzo

Casale in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (Album G. V.

Casale, fols. 374 – 5 ; Argan and Contardi, fig. 477 ). It

displays some differences from the other plans that may

be no more than the result of inaccurate copying. How-

ever, the circular form in the centre of Casale’s plan

clearly represents the lantern that crowns the church’s

dome.

The present drawing, identified in an undated inscrip-

tion on the mount by Professor Ackerman, is close to Le

Mercier’s engraving of the plan. However, it shows the

entrance arm protruding a little further from the body

of the church than in Calcagni’s ground plan, and it also

contains other differences that should be noted. On the

right and upper arms, there are three entrances (and the

left arm was presumably planned to have a similar arrange-

ment), the main one in the centre and subsidiary narrower

entrances on either side. Another drawing, by Giovanni

Antonio Dosio (Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Mss. Cam-

pori App. 1775 ,=a.Z. 2. 2 ,C. 140 verso- 141 recto; Argan

and Contardi, fig. 478 ), of the model in section (minus the

lantern), also shows an entrance arm protruding further

than in the model and, apparently, containing three door-

ways. It may be, therefore, that the present drawing reflects

a phase in Michelangelo’s planning of the church, just

prior to the final one, in which he brought the arms more

tightly into the main body of the church and reduced the

entrances to one per arm.

Also of interest is the circular, centrally placed form,

whose outer ring is larger in relation to the central space

than in the final version recorded in Uffizi318 5Abut

whose two inner rings seem to correspond precisely. It

seems unlikely that these circles represent an altar, which

Michelangelo seems never to have thought of as circular,

and in both drawings it is presumably the lantern. The

outer ring in the present drawing no doubt indicates the

platform around the lantern, seen most clearly in Berlin

20. 976 and Regnard’s engraving. ́

The present drawing displays a further minor inconsis-

tency in the pilaster on the exterior just right of the choir

area, which is narrower than all the other comparable

pilasters, but it is unlikely that this has any significance.

Another variant, in which the arms protrude still

further, and in which the entrance is articulated with

two deep lateral niches (similar to those seen in CB

124 A/B 160 /Corpus 612 ) and with columns in the cor-

ners, a motif found in several studies by Michelangelo

of this period (such as BM W 84 /Corpus 623 ), is seen

in a fairly sketchy drawing – but containing some mea-

surements – of the plan by Oreste Vannocci Biringucci

in Siena (Biblioteca Communale, S.IV. 1 ,fol. 42 recto;

Argan-Contardi, fig. 473 ). This might also record a phase

in Michelangelo’s design process for which no autograph

drawings survive.

History

John Talman the younger, part of the Largest Talman

album (L. 2462 ); Christie’s sale, 13 March 1942 , lot 102 ,

H. Calmann, acquired in 1944.

References

Noehles, 1969 ,p. 66 , fig. 58 (First publication of plan;

after Calcagni’s wooden model.). Argan and Contardi,

1990 ,p.34 7(Plan that of Calcagni’s wooden model.).