Cupola above the entrance to the crypt (fol. p viii recto) 1499

Curator: This is a drawing titled "Cupola above the entrance to the crypt." It's an anonymous work currently held in the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It feels so stark, almost like an architect's daydream rendered in ink. The geometric precision is calming, though maybe a bit unsettling considering it marks a crypt. Curator: The drawing itself, given its location within a book, suggests it was probably made for a specific, perhaps instructional purpose. The materials—paper, ink—speak to a certain accessibility in disseminating architectural ideas. Editor: I love the tiny geometric floor. It's as though the artist is offering a secret glimpse into a perfectly ordered afterlife. Or maybe I'm just projecting my anxieties onto it. Curator: Consider also the labor involved. The careful rendering of each line, the columns, the dome… each element required a deliberate act, a skill passed down through generations of craftspeople. Editor: Yes, and now I see it less as a cold diagram and more as a little sanctuary, built with ink and hope. Curator: Indeed, it's fascinating how a simple drawing can reveal so much about artistic production and the human desire to give form to the unknown. Editor: It definitely gives the term "blueprint for eternity" a whole new resonance.