The Preliminary Drawing for Villard de Honnecourt's 'Sepulchre of a Saracen'

Abstract

Analysis of a newly discovered preliminary drawing by Villard de Honnecourt in his portfolio (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS fr. 19.093, folio 5v) for his 'Sepulchre of a Saracen' (folio 6r). It is argued that, although it is not now possible to determine if the preliminary drawing was a full-scale model to be copied (traced?) or merely an aide-memoire, the technique of the drawing itself is consistent with Villard's treatment of real architecture elsewhere in his portfolio and indicates that his model for his 'Sepulchre of a Saracen' was real architecture, as he claimed, not a miniature relief, as others have since posited.