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  • image SM 47/3/30

Reference number

SM 47/3/30

Purpose

[10] Design for a sepulchral chapel, Tyringham Hall, 1800

Aspect

Elevation of a Sepulchral Chapel from the West. Steps lead to a four-fluted-Doric-columned-porch supporting a triangular pediment. Between the central intercolumniation is a door. On the side of the steps are statues of females wearing classical garb on bases decorated with processing figures. The exterior wall is rounded with Doric columns on the side and windows. Above is a hipped roof with strigilated sarcophagi on bases. Behind, the base of the tower has cinerary urns around it, and the single-tier tower has arch-topped latticed windows with engaged Ionic columns between. Above is a stepped dome, with an ourobouros motif on the drum surmounted by figures clasping hands

Scale

bar scale of 1 8/10 inches to 10 feet

Signed and dated

  • 1800
    L. I. Fields / 1800

Medium and dimensions

Pen, wash, coloured washes of Payne’s grey, stone and yellow, on wove paper (811 x 565)

Hand

Possibly Gandy, Joseph Michael (1771--1843), draughtsman

Notes

Possibly the first highly washed perspective of the interior which can be compared with SM 13/5/6 produced in January 1801. The use of Doric may be indicative of other mausolea such as that at Castle Howard, and was considered a stronger, more solid order than the elaborate Ionic and Corinthian. Ionic is reserved for the tower. The female figures are sitting, some holding their veil, others perhaps with their heads bowed. These play the role of mourners, a motif seen in funerary monuments from antiquity, which along with the sarcophagi and urns immediately notify the viewer of the funereal function of the building. The ourobouros (a snake devouring its tail) was seen on ancient monuments, denoting the cycle of birth and renewal, and was utilised by Soane on memorial stones (SM 63/6/10-12dated to 1808), and later, most famously for the tomb he designed for his wife, Eliza in 1815, and which would later hold his oldest son, John Soane Junior in 1823, and Soane himself in 1837

Level

Drawing

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