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Capriccio showing overgrown classical ruins with two walls of a courtyard with two porticoes, one having three bays, linked by pilastered walls. The columns are fluted and without bases, with a relief panel and attic above and an open belvedere on top.
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Reference number
Adam vol.55/67
Purpose
Capriccio showing overgrown classical ruins with two walls of a courtyard with two porticoes, one having three bays, linked by pilastered walls. The columns are fluted and without bases, with a relief panel and attic above and an open belvedere on top.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink on drawing 67
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 - 56
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil, watercolour237 x 265
Hand
Charles-Louis Clérisseau
Notes
The subtle handling of watercolour and the sophisticated use of light are more typical of Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820) than Robert Adam, a superiority that Adam reluctantly accepted. He wrote in February 1755 that Clérisseau had '... the utmost knowledge of architecture, of perspective, and of designing and colouring I ever saw or had any conception of. He raised my ideas. He created emulation and fire in my breast.' (J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.135). The use of partially-submerged columns can be found in Clérisseau's views of the Fora of Nerva and Augustus, Rome, which may have been derived in turn from Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78) (see T. McCormick, Charles-Louis Clérisseau and the Genesis of Neo-Classicism, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 1990, p.10). The belvedere may be compared with similar ones in Adam's Roman views in volume 57, such as Adam vol.57/90. There are similar compositions in volume 56, and a preliminary chalk sketch in Adam vol.55/75 with the remains of perspective lines, which is probably also in Clérisseau's hand.
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
The Adam Brothers in Rome: Drawings from the Grand Tour, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 25 September 2008 - 14 February 2009
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