DR1969:0016

NAME(S) Unknown draughtsman TITLE Design for an altarpiece frame DATE(S) 16th century PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 1 drawing(s) pen and brown ink and wash with black chalk sheet: 32.4 x 16.8 cm INSCRIPTIONS inscribed - by the draughtsman, in pen and brown ink, u.c.: with an illegible inscription on panel above arch; c.r. and l.r.: with illegible numbers inscribed - by an unknown contemporary hand, in pen and brown ink, verso, c.: with an illegible inscription; and c.r., c. and l.c.: with several calculations NOTES - This drawing represents an altar, perhaps a shallow side altar of a type increasingly demanded by the Counter-Reformation cult of saints. The dimensions of the rectangular form between the column pedestals (6 x 3 3/4 piedi, according to scale) are appropriate for an altar table. Freehand perspective on the inside right face of the arch indicates the shallowness of the niche, most likely meant to contain a devotional image in the form of a panel painting. A plan of one pair of the engaged columns figures on the lower right. The cardinal's hat signals a religious patron whose coat of arms once appeared in the now badly- abraded centre of the cartouche. See DR1969:0015 for a (superficially ?)similar drawing and MNR note on same. - This design is an example of one of the many uses made of the Roman triumphal arch by Renaissance architects. The composition and ornementation of the area above the main entablature (the zone of greatest innovation in most adaptations of the Roman triumphal arch) point stylistically to Italy in the last decades of the 16th century. SOURCES - Blau, Eve, and Edward Kaufman, eds. 'Architecture and Its Image: Four Centuries of Architectural Representation, Works from the Collection of the Canadian Centre for Architecture', (Montréal: Centre Canadien d'Architecture/Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1989), p. 162, cat. no. 3. - Blau, Eve, and Edward Kaufman, eds. 'L'architecture et son image: Quatre siècles de représentation architecturale, ouvres tirées des collections du Centre Canadien d'architecture' (Montréal: Centre Canadien d'Architecture/Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1989), p. 162, cat. no. 3. - Steiner, Rochelle. 'Wonderland', with contributions by Giuliana Bruno, Beatriz Colomina, Terence Riley, and Margie Ruddick (Saint Louis, Mo.: The Saint Louis Art Museum, 2000), p. 114, repr. KEYWORDS renderingline drawinginterior designelevation (drawing)drawingsdesign development drawingaedicule DR1969:0016 Collection Centre Canadien d'Architecture/ Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal