Unfinished capriccio showing a triumphal arch of three bays, with the central arch leading to a pedimented doorway. On either side are columns supporting sculptural figures, with an attic storey above that has an inscription panel.

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Robert and James Adam travel drawings
- Adam Volume 55

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Reference number

Adam vol.55/136

Purpose

Unfinished capriccio showing a triumphal arch of three bays, with the central arch leading to a pedimented doorway. On either side are columns supporting sculptural figures, with an attic storey above that has an inscription panel.

Aspect

Perspective verso perspectives

Inscribed

Inscribed in ink on drawing 136

Signed and dated

Undated, 1755 - 56

Medium and dimensions

Black chalk, grey wash 142 x 204

Hand

Robert Adam (attributed to)
verso Robert Adam

Verso

Capricci showing a building with a five-bay recessed portico on steps, and above a decorated attic storey and shallow dome on a drum with thermal windows. Below this is a view of a building with drum and dome, the drawing partially trimmed. These drawings are clearly in the hand of Robert Adam. Similar hatching to indicate shadows may be seen in Adam vol.55/87, 138 verso and in several other drawings in this volume.

Watermark

trimmed fragment

Notes

The drawing of the triumphal arch is loosely based on that of the Arch of Titus in Rome, Italy; there is an unfinished variation of this arch in Adam vol.55/162. It is possible to compare the elevation with the design in Adam vol.55/171. The pencil underdrawing here is not typical of Robert Adam, particularly the drawing of the figures.

Level

Drawing

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

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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.

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