Round Bastions and Pentagonal Bulwarks: Castel Nuovo in the Album of Francisco de Holanda (1538-1540)

The Codex Álbum dos Desenhos das Antigualhas / Album of Drawings of Antigualhas, by Francisco de Holanda, is located in Escorial / Madrid, containing 113 drawn pages (some polychrome) made in situ during his trip to Italy (1538-1540). The Author published later two important treatises (1548): Diálogos em Roma / Dialogues in Rome and Da Pintura Antiga / On Antique Painting. Still a result of the fascination caused by the experience carried out, he wrote and drew, among other works, Da Ciência do Desenho / About the Science of Drawing (1571), Da Fábrica que Falece à Cidade de Lisboa / On the Construction Needed to the City of Lisbon (1572) and Imagens das Idades do Mundo / Images of the Ages of the World (1545-1573). Holanda (1517-1581), a notable figure of the Portuguese Renaissance, lived in Rome with artistic exponents of the Court of Paul III (1468-1549), mainly Michelangelo (1475-1564), both portrayed in his Album.On his journey he began by recording the round bastions of Salces (Ramiro Lopez, 1503-1507), with the avant-garde geometry and tectonics of its walls and ditches. Also, on the Spanish-French border, the drawings of San Sebastián (with its imperial bulwark, 1527), and of Fuenterrabia / Bayonne (1530), showing low pentagonal bulwarks with embankments for artillery inserted in ditches, as well representing the entrance’ ravelin of Sforza’ Castel at Milano, or the sketch of a Modern bulwark at Pesaro, approaching the Venetian school of Sanmichele (1484-1559).The documentary collection from Holanda illustrates the state of the art of fortification at the beginning of the second quarter of the Cinquecento, revealing particular interest in the explanation of rectilinear shapes for flanking artillery fire. In this transition, the pentagonal bulwark stands out, expressively inserted into the very detailed design of Castel Nuovo / Naples. Here, Holanda represented exhaustively the profound evolution of the fortification inaugurated in the 13th century by Charles d’Anjou. The drawing shows its five strong and high round towers (1453) and, in the front articulation of the earth wall (before 1520), it appears the surprising and imposing pentagonal bulwark, assuring the prevailing directions in military architecture.