A SCALE OF ENGLISH FEET (1/2 in to 1 ft)

A GEOMETRICAL ELEVATION OF THE REMAINS OF A TEMPLE AT TIVOLI, vertical dimensions given and (architrave) EO.L.L.GELLIO.L.F Signed: G Dance FEC.ROMAE Dated 1763

• 1761-3 1794-5

Pen, sepia and raw umber washes, shaded, within triple ruled wash border on card (585 x 840)

Dance

This is a carefully finished monochrome drawing in which, for example, the title and scale are lettered as though chiselled on a broken stone slab and weeds grow from the ruined tufa walls. It shows the door, part of the peristyle with its entablature and the walls of the cella. Dance transcribed the fragmented inscription on the architrave, drawing it 'as a characteristic letter of the Republican period, monoline, with slight, vestigial serifs. [Taking] no account of the weathering of the stone, presenting the letter in an idealized form: the strokes are almost exactly equal in weight, and the curves of the letter C and G are rendered as parts of a perfect circle by means of a compass, the point of which has left clear marks in the paper ... this [influential] drawing is an important document in the history of Western letter forms' (J.Mosley, The Nymph and the grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, 1999, p.22).

The faded and abraded condition of the drawing is explained by a comment in C.W.Dance's letter to Soane of 6 April 1836 after the death of his father: 'I have / your old friends the Views taken by my Father / of the Temple of Tivoli etc.etc. hanging up / in nice order in my Study' (SM, Priv.Corr. III.D.5.32). Presumably, Dance himself had framed and hung them, that is, [SM D3/1/2], [SM D3/1/3], [SM D3/1/6], judging by their condition. Soane's accounts (SM, Ledger E) show that £500 was paid for Dance's drawings on 18 November 1836. It is not known whether the drawings were taken from their frames then or later.

Soane made a copy of this drawing that is virtually identical though the freehand detail of vegetation is less well handled and, for example, the spacing between the lettering is different, signing it I.SOAN.ARC.E. (SM p.279). The signature is odd and not just because it falsely suggests authorship. Soane added the final 'e' to his name in 1784 and 'amended every previous reference to John Soan, extinguishing the last vestige of his earlier self' (G Darley, John Soane, 1999. p.1). A 'Soan' signature on a drawing implies that it was made before 1784 which is not the case. And why did he inscribe the isolated 'E' at the end? See also note to [SM D3/1/6].

Farington wrote in his diary (10 February 1797) 'Soane borrowed Dances drawing of the Sybils Temple and copied it, then hung it up, inserting his own name for that of Dance, as having drawing it on the spot. Byers [James Byres, 1734-1817) an unsuccessful architect, cicerone and dealer] borrowed the same drawing from Dance [when both were in Rome], copied it and sold a great number of copies of that as from his own measurement'. Farington again notes in his diary (5 September 1803) 'drank tea with Dance ... He mentioned some particulars abt. His drawing and measurements of the Temple at Tivoli, & of Soane's copying it' and some years later (4 March 1810) 'Dance gve me a trait of Soane's character. On Soane's return from Italy He told Dance that after He left Rome He lost his sketches owing to the bottom of His trunk coming out. He afterwards borrowed Dance's drawings of the Sybils temple at Tivoli & copied it & hung it up in His House with John Soane written under it, as if the drawing had been originally made by Himself. This being remarked to him, He claimed originality for this drawing saying that He borrowed Mr Dance's drawing only to compare it with his own'.

There is also among Soane's own drawings another copy of Dance's drawing catalogued here, set in a wider landscape and with more sky, drawn to a scale of ¼ inch to 1 foot and used for Soane's Royal Academy Lecture IV, No 23 [SM, 19/7/2] and a further copy [SM 19/7/4].

Tivoli was important to Soane. When in Rome, the Bishop of Derry had spoken to him about building a copy of the Temple on his Irish estate at Downhill but nothing came of this. Soane used the order on the exterior wall and Lothbury Court of the northeast extension of the Bank of England before he designed the Tivoli Corner at the northwest angle, 1804-5, and the Tivoli Recess in his home at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields that included a cast of the entablature of the Temple of Vesta as well as busts of Soane and Dance (before 1917, when it was converted into a lavatory). In his Royal Academy Lecture II he spoke of Tivoli's 'singularity and [the] charming effect of most of its parts particularly those of the capital .... The architrave is plain, one face whereof is omitted to make room for an inscription. The frieze is enriched with festoons of flowers passing over the heads of bulls whilst the cornice is quite plain without either modillions or dentils. Yet the uncommon taste, lightness and elegance of every part of this beautiful composition has never been surpassed, nor can be sufficiently admired'. (quoted in D.Watkin, Sir John Soane: Enlightenment thought and the Royal Academy lectures, Cambridge, 1996, p.512). Soane used ten drawings of the Temple of Vesta - some more that once - in six of his Royal Academy lectures (Watkin, 1996, appendix 2. List of Soane's Lecture illustrations at the Royal Academy, pp.672-93), most of them having their source in the drawings made by Dance.

Dance's drawings of the inscribed architrave of the Temple at Tivoli are important in terms of typographical history. James Mosley in his research into the origins of the use in modern times of the sanserif letterform became 'increasingly convinced that John Soane was a key figure ... [and of the importance of] Soane's sketch, after Dance, of the "monoline" inscription of the little Republican Temple of Vesta at Tivoli'. Monoline means letterforms 'having strokes that are, or appear to be, of uniform thickness. The Tivoli inscription does indeed have minute endstrokes or "serifs", but these are insignificant compared with those of the fully calligraphic inscriptional letter of the Imperial period' (J Mosley, The Nymph and the grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, 1999, p.11).

Drawing

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