Preliminary design for the Dining room Cieling at Kedleston, 1761, as executed (1)

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Robert and James Adam office drawings
- Country houses
  - Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire: designs for landscape architecture, alterations to the house, and interior design for Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 5th Baronet (created Lord Scarsdale 1761), 1759-72 (149)
    - Designs for the interior decoration and furniture including the hall, saloon, drawing room, dining room, music room, library, ante room, breakfasting parlour, staircase, state bed room, and principal dressing rooms

Purpose

Preliminary design for the Dining room Cieling at Kedleston, 1761, as executed (1)

Notes

We know from the Duchess of Northumberland's account of her visit to Kedleston in 1766 that this ceiling was executed with an alternative colour scheme: with a purple ground. As such the form, but not the colours, denoted in the drawing were followed. The design for the ceiling is based on an antique example from the Palace of Augustus in Rome, of which Adam was in possession of a drawing by Giuseppe Manocchi (SM Adam volume 26/169). This particular ceiling from the Palace of Augustus is also illustrated in Charles Cameron's Baths of the Romans (1772). There is a finished drawing to this design for the ceiling in the Kedleston drawings collection. The painted roundels are by Antonio Zucchi, the oblong panels by William Hamilton, and the central roundel by Henry Moreland.

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Contents of Preliminary design for the Dining room Cieling at Kedleston, 1761, as executed (1)

[80] Preliminary design for the ceiling for the dining room, 1761, as executed