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  • image Image 1 for SM 45/3/31, P286, P279, 45/3/32
  • image Image 2 for SM 45/3/31, P286, P279, 45/3/32
  • image Image 1 for SM 45/3/31, P286, P279, 45/3/32
  • image Image 2 for SM 45/3/31, P286, P279, 45/3/32

Reference number

SM 45/3/31, P286, P279, 45/3/32

Purpose

1-4 Copies from measured drawings by George Dance

Aspect

1 THE PLAN OF THE REMAINS OF A TEMPLE AT TIVOLI
2 A GEOMETRICAL ELEVATION OF THE REMAINS OF A TEMPLE AT TIVOLI
3 THE ENTABLATURE OF A TEMPLE AT TIVOLI
4 TIVOLI, THE INSIDE MOVLDINGS OF THE WINDOW
, THE OVTSIDE MOVLDINGS OF THE WINDOW,The Soffite of the window

Scale

(1) ½ in to 1 ft
(2) to A SCALE OF ENGLISH FEET ½ in to 1 ft
(3) to A SCALE OF ENGLISH FEET 3 in to 1 ft
(4) ¾ in and 2 ins to 1 ft

Inscribed

(1-4) as above and dimensions given

Signed and dated

  • badly-nested tags: br

Medium and dimensions

(1) Pen and sepia wash, pencil, within raw umber wash border; (2,3) framed NOT AVAILABLE; (4) pen, sepia, light pink and cream washes, shaded, some pricking through for transfer, with single ruled and raw umber wash border (1,4) on laid paper; (2,3) framed NOT AVAILABLE (1,4) 622 x 958, 619 x 952, (2,3) framed NOT AVAILABLE)

Hand

Soane

Watermark

(1,4) J Whatman; (2-3) framed NOT AVAILABLE

Notes

The plan (drawing 1) is a close copy of that made by Dance (D3/1/2; Lever, op.cit., catalogue 13.13), drawn to the same scale with a title added. The elevation/section (drawing 2) is a close copy of one made by Dance, dated 1763 (D3/1/3; Lever, op.cit., catalogue 13.14) drawn to the same scale and with the same inscription. The details of the entablature (drawing 3) were again copied from Dance (D3/1/6; Lever, op.cit, catalogue 13.17). The details of windows on a single sheet (drawing 4) were taken from two of Dance’s drawings (D3/1/5 and D3/1/6; J.Lever, op.cit.,catalogue 13.15 and 13.16) omitting the door and drawn to the same scale.
Dance may have been irked by such plagiarism for it is mentioned at least three times in his friend Joseph Farington's diary. Thus (4 March 1810) Farington recorded that Soane 'borrowed Dance's drawing of the Sybils temple at Tivoli & copied it, & hung it up in His House with John Soane written under it, as if the drawing had been originally made by Himself.' (The Diary of Joseph Farington, 16 volumes, 1978-98)

Literature

P.du Prey, John Soane's architectural education 1753-80, 1977, pp. 122-3,144;P.du Prey, John Soane, the making of an architect, 1982, pp.148-51, 359 fn.8; M.Richardson, 'John Soane and the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, Architectural History, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, XLVI, 2003, pp.127-46; J.Lever, Catalogue of the drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) ... 2003

Level

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

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).