Giuliano da Sangallo's Drawings after Ciriaco d'Ancona: Transformations of Greek and Roman Antiquities in Athens

Abstract

Ciriaco d'Ancona and Giuliano da Sangallo shared with many of their 15th-century contemporaries a passionate interest in the antique world. Both avidly recorded the remains of classical monuments, but they did so in distinct manners. The diversity of their approaches reflects the shifting focus of Renaissance antiquarians. Nowhere is this more evident than in the pages of Athenian monuments which Giuliano copied from Ciriaco's commentaria. Giuliano subtly, but significantly, transformed Ciriacan drawings of the Parthenon, the Tower of the Winds and the Monument of Philopappos to conform to his own notion of "good" architecture, rather than copy what he found on Ciriaco's pages. In effect, Giuliano, who had never seen the Athenian monuments, redesigned them on the pattern of Roman antiquities known to him from his travels in Italy and southern France. This process of conscious transformation was precisely the type of exercise which Alberti encouraged architects to undertake. Giuliano's manner of simultaneously copying and reshaping drawings of classical monuments parallels his own practices as an architect.