Leonardo's studies of the trabeated colonnade with relieving arches and the Carafa chapel, the Succorpo of the Naples Cathedral

Abstract

Leonardo's analyses of the behaviour of masonry structures were developed in Milan and characterised his experience in architecture. This, intertwined with his studies of architectural organisms, is linked to Bramante. His sketches on these themes show a profound knowledge of the ways in which weight is transferred in built forms. The 1486 sketch of four columns surmounted by a pediment with different forms of relieving arches in the frieze at f. 301r of Codex Atlanticus - a recognised analysis of the function of the relieving arch on a stone lintel – makes no reference to an architectural project. The association with the Succorpo chapel under the apse of Naples Cathedral, due to the extraordinary technical solution of the slab, appears illuminating. The chapel, begun in 1497 but already planned in 1484, still lacks an architect, although the first suggestion to Bramante is solid. A comparison between the sketch and the actual work, combined with chronological and material data, would seem to reconstruct the reasons for the sketch or, in any case, testify to the spread of Leonardo's influence through a constructed work.