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[4] Finished measured drawing, probably after Thomas Hardwick, later used as a Royal Academy lecture drawings
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Reference number
SM 20/5/4
Purpose
[4] Finished measured drawing, probably after Thomas Hardwick, later used as a Royal Academy lecture drawings
Aspect
Plan titled Pianta del primo Piano dell' Anfiteatro Flavio with Indice numbered 1 to 13 beginning Quattro ingressi principali ... and ending Euripo dell'acqua, dove si rinfrescavano i / Gladiatori
Scale
1/22 in to 1ft, with bar scale
Inscribed
as above, 620. feet on long axis 513' 4"
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil within double ruled and wash border on laid paper (632 x 989)
Hand
Soane
Watermark
J Honig & Zoonen and beehive within cartouche
Notes
The plan is carefully drawn and washed and the lettering is certainly in Soane's hand. Although filed with Soane's Royal Academy lecture drawings it was, in fact, not used.
Soane's sketchbook 'Italian Sketches' 1779 (SM volume 39, 6-8r,9r) has a few details of the Colosseum, but he probably acquired most of his information from Hardwick who made the Colosseum a particular subject of study, commissioning a model and communicating a paper to the Society of Antiquaries. P.du Prey, (J.Lever, editor), Catalogue of the the Drawings Collections of the Royal Institute of British Architects, G-K, 1973, p.921 mentions 'two elevations and an ideal sectional reconstruction in John Soane's collection [that] may record the appearance of [lost] Hardwick originals copied ... in the summer of 1778'. Hardwick's drawings at the RIBA Drawings Collection are a plan 'from actual admeasurements / In 1778', and an elevation of one bay inscribed 'Elevation of part of the / Colosseum - 1778 - T.Hardwick', and 'the Model to be made 1/11 [the 11 blotted] of an Inch to a Foot' (SB57/6-7).
Soane's sketchbook 'Italian Sketches' 1779 (SM volume 39, 6-8r,9r) has a few details of the Colosseum, but he probably acquired most of his information from Hardwick who made the Colosseum a particular subject of study, commissioning a model and communicating a paper to the Society of Antiquaries. P.du Prey, (J.Lever, editor), Catalogue of the the Drawings Collections of the Royal Institute of British Architects, G-K, 1973, p.921 mentions 'two elevations and an ideal sectional reconstruction in John Soane's collection [that] may record the appearance of [lost] Hardwick originals copied ... in the summer of 1778'. Hardwick's drawings at the RIBA Drawings Collection are a plan 'from actual admeasurements / In 1778', and an elevation of one bay inscribed 'Elevation of part of the / Colosseum - 1778 - T.Hardwick', and 'the Model to be made 1/11 [the 11 blotted] of an Inch to a Foot' (SB57/6-7).
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk