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[39] Finished drawing for the exterior of Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone, London, 17 April 1822
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Reference number
SM 54/3/2
Purpose
[39] Finished drawing for the exterior of Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone, London, 17 April 1822
Aspect
This perpective of a five-by-nine bay church within a landscape is similar in most respects to SM 54/3/3, but with the following exceptions: some of the metopes have been blanked, the base of the tower has a roundel at the front, the entablatures has Soane caps and pinecone finials, and the sarcophagi have been removed, the second tier of the tower is square with triple slit windows and has decorated segmental pediments, the third cylindrical tier is taller. The attic roof has a plain front. The major additions are pairs of free-standing sculpted figures with sarcophagi between them, on each side of the tower and the rear, and a sarcophagus has been placed on the base to the tower
Scale
to a scale
Inscribed
Sketch for a design for a church to be erected in the / Eastern Division of the Parish of St. Marylebone.
Signed and dated
- 17 April 1822
Lincolns Inn Fields / April 17th. 1822.
Medium and dimensions
Pen, wash, coloured washes of light blue, brown, green, olive green, Payne’s grey, sepia, stone, and yellow within a quintuplet ruled border, on wove paper (499 x 352)
Hand
Probably Soane Office, draughtsman
Watermark
JAMES WHATMAN TURKEY / 1819
Notes
This well executed perspective of the Church is also notable for the amount of free-standing sculptural adornment, including figurative, to the roofline. The use of standing figures standing in hieratic poses and sarcophagi on plinths was a feature of Soane's unexecuted sepulchral chapel for Tyringham Hall from 1799-1800 (see SM P269; SM 13/5/6). At Tyringham, the standing figures were within niches in the exterior wall, flanking each entrance, and atop the dome, a feature Soane included on the 1820 scheme for Holy Trinity (see SM 54/3/4-9). On this drawing, Soane has transferred all of the statuary to the roofline and base of the tower.
The sarcophagi do symbolically point to a function of Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone. It would be a church used for burials within its vaults (see SM 54/4/1, SM 54/4/29; SM 54/4/34-5). Nevertheless, this sculpture would need to be excluded because of the cost involved. Such adornment may be one of the reasons why the 1822 estimate was £28,600.
The sarcophagi do symbolically point to a function of Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone. It would be a church used for burials within its vaults (see SM 54/4/1, SM 54/4/29; SM 54/4/34-5). Nevertheless, this sculpture would need to be excluded because of the cost involved. Such adornment may be one of the reasons why the 1822 estimate was £28,600.
Level
Drawing
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk