Hand unknown
Baldachin over a well
Chalk, ink, hatching and pigment on parchment
c. 1500
North Italian Album, SM volume 122/25
Sir John Soane’s Museum, London
This elaborate baldachin, or canopy, features capitals whose volutes thread through the eye sockets of ox skulls and highly decorative putti holding ribbons and festoons. Its ambitious structure comprises arches supporting an entablature, drum and dome. Bringing together structural understanding and a sculptural approach to ornament, this baldachin explores the limits of what large-scale, three-dimensional architecture can achieve.