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[13] Design for a sepulchral chapel, Tyringham Hall, 1801
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Reference number
SM P269
Purpose
[13] Design for a sepulchral chapel, Tyringham Hall, 1801
Aspect
Perspective from the west and north of a Sepulchral Chapel set within a landscape with moonlight, and the exterior is staffed by visitors, including a dog. Steps flanked by tall plinths with processing figures around the bottom lead to a four-fluted-Doric-columned porch with a door between the central intercolumniations on the west side. This is repeated on the north side. The exterior wall is rounded with niches containing statues. Between the niches is a round-topped latticed window with a female statue in front. Above the porches is a base with an inscription tablet, and placed on the base is a strigilated and inscribed sarcophagus. Around the roofline are memorial tablets. Above is a stepped base with cinerary urns around the top. Above is the tower consisting of arch-topped latticed windows with engaged Ionic columns between. The stepped dome has an ourobouros around the drum and surmounting the dome are figures clasping hands with an urn placed between.
Scale
to a scale
Signed and dated
- 1801
Medium and dimensions
Pen, wash, washes of blue, Cerulean blue, green, olive green, orange, stone and yellow ( x )
Hand
Probably Gandy, Joseph Michael (1771--1843), draughtsman
Notes
The watercolour can be seen as a final view of the Sepulchral Chapel. It is similar in most regards to SM13/5/6 including the insulated park setting and the visitors, who indicate scale, but also many are discussing and pointing to the monument, as if they have just come across it, and so it was to have a visual as well as practical function. Ornamentally, inscribed stone memorial tablets have now been added to the roofline, and the ourobouros has returned. Being a night scene, it also assists us in the interior lighting, which presumably would have been executed with candles and lamps. In 1801, Soane did exhibit at the Royal Academy Exhibition ‘A Sepulchral Church’ (RA No. 956) which can only be this watercolour.
Literature
Graves, 1906, vol. IV (1970 edition), p. 200
Lukacher, 2006, p. 38
Rossi, 2019, p. 11
Lukacher, 2006, p. 38
Rossi, 2019, p. 11
Level
Drawing
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk