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Temple of Hercules, Cora, Cori, c.1759-64
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Reference number
SM D3/1/18
Purpose
Temple of Hercules, Cora, Cori, c.1759-64
Aspect
[1] Rough plan and elevation of the temple, and details of the Doric order and shouldered architrave to door
Scale
to various scales
Inscribed
Temple at Cori, inscription in the Frease of the Doorcase / MM-LIUS.M.F.L. TVRPILIVS.L.E.DVOMVIRES.DE./SENATVS/ SENTE-TIA.AEDM FACIENDAM COERAVERVNT EISDEMQVE PROLAVERE and dimensions given
Signed and dated
- c.1759-64
Medium and dimensions
Brown pen pencil on coarse laid paper (490 x 655)
Hand
Dance
Watermark
(footed P)
Notes
The small, 2nd-century BC Temple of Hercules at Cora (about 45 kilometres south of Rome) is one of a tiny number of Roman temples in the Doric style.
In his Royal Academy Lecture II Soane used the Temple at Cora as an example of architecture that 'has greatly degenerated by being transplated: that man;y robustness and severity, so strongly marked in Grecian works, is entirely lost' (quoted in D. Watkin, Sir J ohn Soane: Enlightenment thought and the Royal Academy lectures , Cambridge, 1996, p.506). In Lecture IX, Soane uses the Tivoli type inner face of the door, wihich has a shouldered architrave and is narrower at the top than at the bottom, as an example of the ancients' preference for 'large entrances into their temples' (quoted in Watkin, 1996, p.611).
Soane used an elevation of the building in Lecture II, No.14 [SM 19/9/6] and a perspective view of the interior for Lecture IX, No.18. [SM 19/9/5].
Soane asked if he might borrow Dance's drawings of Cora and received a letter from Dance in Upper Gower Street dated 4 October 1819: My Dear Sir / Since you snet for my drawings of the / Temple of Cora I have rummaged in my papers/ in vain and cannot find a single line of / it nor do I recollect or know that I ever had / one dimension of the building if I possessed / any such thing I qou'd send it to you without / delay I have been confined for some time / passed with a furious cough which I caught / attending an old friend to his long home wch / has prevented me from calling upon you / sincerely
Yours / Geo: Dance (SM, Priv.Corr.III.D.5.25)
In his Royal Academy Lecture II Soane used the Temple at Cora as an example of architecture that 'has greatly degenerated by being transplated: that man;y robustness and severity, so strongly marked in Grecian works, is entirely lost' (quoted in D. Watkin, Sir J ohn Soane: Enlightenment thought and the Royal Academy lectures , Cambridge, 1996, p.506). In Lecture IX, Soane uses the Tivoli type inner face of the door, wihich has a shouldered architrave and is narrower at the top than at the bottom, as an example of the ancients' preference for 'large entrances into their temples' (quoted in Watkin, 1996, p.611).
Soane used an elevation of the building in Lecture II, No.14 [SM 19/9/6] and a perspective view of the interior for Lecture IX, No.18. [SM 19/9/5].
Soane asked if he might borrow Dance's drawings of Cora and received a letter from Dance in Upper Gower Street dated 4 October 1819: My Dear Sir / Since you snet for my drawings of the / Temple of Cora I have rummaged in my papers/ in vain and cannot find a single line of / it nor do I recollect or know that I ever had / one dimension of the building if I possessed / any such thing I qou'd send it to you without / delay I have been confined for some time / passed with a furious cough which I caught / attending an old friend to his long home wch / has prevented me from calling upon you / sincerely
Yours / Geo: Dance (SM, Priv.Corr.III.D.5.25)
Level
Drawing
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk