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Capriccio showing a sketch for an elevation of a symmetrical villa with shallow dome and cupola above a pedimented doorway on steps, flanked by a colonnade with attic storey linking to pedimented pavilions. The faint drawing of a tree is beneath the elevation.
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Reference number
Adam vol.55/34
Purpose
Capriccio showing a sketch for an elevation of a symmetrical villa with shallow dome and cupola above a pedimented doorway on steps, flanked by a colonnade with attic storey linking to pedimented pavilions. The faint drawing of a tree is beneath the elevation.
Aspect
Elevation verso plan
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink on drawing 34verso inscribed in ink probably in Robert Adam's hand - Thursday Morning bla -/ Thursday Night Vom -/ Friday Night at T-/ Saturday Morning tooth-/ Sunday Doctor same Night/ Morning draught.
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 - 56
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil94 x 208
Hand
Robert Adam
Verso
Capriccio in pen showing a small plan for a quadrant of a circular building. The notes from a medical diary are probably in Robert Adam's rather shaky hand; he was often ill and in January 1757 he collapsed with what was diagnosed as rheumatic fever (see J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, pp.226-7).
Notes
This design and its variant in Adam vol.55/35 are developments of the Palladian villa elevation, particularly the Villa Trissino illustrated in A. Palladio, I Quattro Libri Dell'architettura, II, 1570, p.60. Robert Adam only visited Vicenza and the Palladian villas on his way home from Italy in the summer of 1757, so such studies would have been derived from the woodcut illustrations in I Quattro Libri, a copy of which he owned and is now in Sir John Soane's Museum (see vol.54 addenda, SM AL6A. There are similar but smaller designs in Adam vol.9/5 and 9/135.The elevation is drawn on top of a faint pencil drawing of a tree.
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