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Capriccio showing the façade of a church with three spires on top of heavily decorated towers, with a central rose window above an arcade with apsidal doorway.
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Reference number
Adam vol.54/Series 4/2
Purpose
Capriccio showing the façade of a church with three spires on top of heavily decorated towers, with a central rose window above an arcade with apsidal doorway.
Aspect
Elevation
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink 2; at top of drawing in ink in Robert Adam's hand Fabrique Gotisque desinée en descendant le Rhin/ [two words crossed through] Idee prise dune Eglise sur le Cote de Dil Fleuve. 1 Decem'r 1757/ proche de Coblentz
Signed and dated
- 1 December 1757
Medium and dimensions
Pen156 x 133
Hand
Robert Adam
Verso
Part of eight lines of calculations in ink and in a contemporary hand petit gris / paul [?]
Watermark
fleur de lys
Notes
This composition is a version of the unfinished pen elevation in Adam vol.54/Series 4/6, although the design here is for a symmetrical building and incorporates classical details. This drawing is Robert Adam's only reference to the German Gothic that he saw in his passage up the Rhine, although the arcaded entrance is Romanesque rather than Gothic and may have been inspired by seeing S.Gereon in Cologne, Germany.
Literature
Repr. J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.243, fig.12.
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