(1) bar scale of English feet - 2/9 in to 1 ft (2) to a scale larger than (1) and without a bar scale or dimensions

as above, (1) N.Popidi Ampliati / N.Popidi Celsini / Corelia Celsa and dimensions given

• (1) Done from measurem^ts Jan^ry 5^th 1779 and Nov^r 4 1779
  (2) J.SOANE(the 'E' added later) F [ecit]

Pen, warm sepia, burnt umber and pale blue washes, shaded, pencil, pricked for transfer within ruled and wash border; pen, warm sepia and burnt umber washes, shaded, pencil within ruled and wash border; on laid paper backed with wove paper (745 x 484, 670 x 447)

Soane

fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche with GR below (obscured)

Measured on 5 January, the plan was fully drawn out on 4 November 1779. The rough incomplete preliminary plans in Soane's sketchbook (see 'Italian Sketches, 1779', SM volume 39, 13v - dated 5 January 1779 - and additional 3v) REFERENCE NEEDED would not have sufficed for the finished plan (drawing 1) and further information must have come from another source. The sketchbook plans have dimensions and many of these appear on the finished plan.
du Prey notes (J.Lever, editor, Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architect, G-K , 1973, p.90³) that Thomas Hardwick had an introduction to Francisco La Vega, the Spanish military engineer in charge of operations at Pompeii, whom he visited on 11 May 1778 and there saw some well-drawn plans of Pompeii.
The drawing of the sanctuary is more painterly than Soane's usual productions and may be a copy (there are pin holes) of a nearly identical Thomas Hardwick watercolour. Hardwick's measured drawings of the Temple of Isis, 1778, inscribed (drawing 3) 'from Observations on the spot in 1778 TH' are in the RIBA Drawings Collection, SB55/2 (1-3).
Described as 'diminutive, axial in its main lines but with important additions that obscure the axiality, hybrid in its architectural forms, a curious mixture of Greco-Roman koines and Egyptianizing motifs in its decoration' (L.Richardson jnr, A New topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, Baltimore, 1992), the temple was built in A.D. 62-79 of cheap materials, relying on stucco and paint for effect.

P.du Prey, John Soane's architectural education 1753-80, 1977, pp.266-7; P.du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, p.137; L.Richardson jr, Pompeii: an architectural history, 1988, pp.281-5

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk