[8/3] Preparatory design for the enlargement of the hospital southwards with a central, cruciform chapel joined to an oval court, which would have connected at the north end to the colonnades of the William and Mary Courts.

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English Baroque Drawings: architecture, sculpture and garden design
- Greenwich Royal Hospital
  - Second enlargement scheme, 1711

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Reference number

SM volume 109/61

Purpose

[8/3] Preparatory design for the enlargement of the hospital southwards with a central, cruciform chapel joined to an oval court, which would have connected at the north end to the colonnades of the William and Mary Courts.

Aspect

Half-elevation of the north front of the chapel and court, corresponding to the plan at [8/1], and showing the west half of the entire court, as viewed from the baseline of the plan, and including a section through the ground-level structure that would have linked the south ends of the two colonnades with the new 'Chapel Court'.

Scale

10 feet to 1 inch

Inscribed

In pen and brown ink by Hawksmoor at bottom left, on main sheet (verso of 109/63), Scale 10.^f in one Inch / put A under B. which enlarges y^e Margin . C; and with letters A and B below and above vertical lines on axis of tower to right, and C to right of this bay; and with dimensions in ink, 13 . 6, and 10; and in graphite, vertically, above left side of right-hand block, West End of y^e ~~West~~ / [above:] South Dor; and below this, beneath base line, King W, and beneath base line with letters against vertical construction lines, a, B, D; and on elevation (once) and to right of elevation (twice), Terras; and with H against horizontal line at base of tower; and in ink in C19 hand at top left of sheet bearing chapel elevation, 61.

Signed and dated

Undated but datable 1711

Medium and dimensions

Pen and brown ink over graphite under-drawing, with grey-brown wash, and some additions in graphite; on laid paper, in three joined and pasted sheets. The main sheet is the right two-thirds, with a central fold (495 x 740), and is the verso of 109/62). It overlaps the left sheet (495 x 355), the verso of 109/63. Overlapping and pasted onto both sheets is that bearing the elevation of the chapel and part of the elevation of the colonnade and front (north side) wall (385 x 495). This sheet is a rectangle with a section 35 mm deep removed from its bottom right-hand half, to fit around the elevation of the front arched wall of the court and the section through the lower part of the one-bay link with the south end of the colonnade of the south dormitory. The sheets are joined with lumps of sealing wax, visible through the paper SM volume 109/61. Overall dimensions, 497 x 1070

Hand

Hawksmoor

Verso

Drawings 109/62 and 109/63

Watermark

Main sheet, Strasbourg Lily / 4WR; IHS / IVILLEDARY; left sheet, IHS / IVILLEDARY

Notes

This half-elevation of the proposed new south court and chapel is drawn at twice the scale of the plan, [8/1]. The latter bears construction lines marked A to F, which correpond to those beneath the base line on this drawing, marked a to D. On the verso of [7/6] is an intermediate study for the development of this elevation from [8/1].

The design of the chapel in this elevation is still at a preliminary stage. Hawksmoor's starting point may have been his sketched elevation and perspective of a peripteral Doric chapel at [7/1]. His turrets, flanking the pediment, are based on those of his revised first enlargement scheme; see [7/2, 3 and 5]. At the next stage in the design, [8/2], he made this level a continuous attic, with turrets above. He then added the dome (see south elevation at Castle Howard, Wren Society, XVII, pl. 51).

In a graphite sketch next to the right side of the turret, Hawksmoor changed the channelling in the necking of the Doric capitals to a line of tall leaves. He used this hybrid Doric and Corinthian capital on his west elevation of the chapel, [8/2].

Literature

Downes 1979, cat. no. 335, and pp.91-4. Wren Society, VI, pl. 37

Level

Drawing

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