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[6] Finished measured drawing, probably after Thomas Hardwick, later used as a Royal Academy lecture drawings
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Reference number
SM 20/5/3
Purpose
[6] Finished measured drawing, probably after Thomas Hardwick, later used as a Royal Academy lecture drawings
Aspect
Section/elevation corresponding with SM 45/3/49
Scale
1/22 in to 1ft
Inscribed
as above
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil, warm sepia, blue, green and burnt umber washes, shaded, with pink wash (added later ?), within triple ruled border on laid paper (397 x 908)
Hand
attributed to Thomas Hardwick (1752- 1829) see below for note
Watermark
footed P (Heawood 3020, 3021)
Notes
The drawing, finished and filed with Soane's Royal Academy lecture drawings, corresponds with SM 45/3/49. It is shaded in careful sepia tones that convey the circular geometry of the building; the pink wash emphasising the cut through section/elevation coarsely laid on and presumably added when the drawing was re-used for lecture purposes. It is set in a landscape with sky, clouds, hills and foreground that reinforce the notion of an ideal reconstruction with the amphitheatre placed on a rural site empty of other buildings. Professor du Prey (January/February 2009) suggested that the handling of the landscape elements is beyond Soane's talent and recalls some of Hardwick's studies of Hadrian's Villa. This seems right and hence the re-attribution to Hardwick of a drawing that had seemed to be 'lost'. The drawing was used for Soane's R.A. lectures - Lecture IV, drawing 52. Possibly Soane 'borrowed' it from Hardwick for use at the Royal Academy.
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