Sanmicheli's "Tornacoro" in Verona Cathedral: A New Drawing and Problems of Interpretation

Two of the least understood aspects of the work of Michele Sanmicheli (c. 1484-1559) are his drawing style and his religious architecture. The discovery of a drawing for the presbytery enclosure, or tornacoro, of Verona Cathedral-a work thought to have been designed by Sanmicheli in 1534-provides an occasion to address both of these issues. The principal aim of this study is to weigh the possibility that the new sheet is a presentation drawing by Sanmicheli for the screen in Verona Cathedral. As such it would shed needed light on Sanmicheli's drawing style. The drawing also has implications for the planning and construction of the tornacoro. It presents a different, even superior, version, suggesting that the scheme was altered between initial design and final execution. The column screen was not an isolated commission, but an essential component of Bishop Gian Matteo Giberti's precocious and influential renovation of the Cathedral presbytery and choir in the spirit of the early Catholic Reform. This study comments on the function of the actual enclosure in the renovated Cathedral presbytery and discusses the sources of its unusual form.