Inscribed
Inscribed in ink in a contemporary hand Jean Bologne
Signed and dated
Medium and dimensions
Pen123 x 113
Hand
Robert Adam
Verso
Pen drawing of part of a design for a decorated obelisk, which is similar to several in this section (see Adam vol.54/Series 3/13).
Notes
The position of this drawing in volume 54 suggests that it may be a sketch made by Robert Adam on his return from Italy in the autumn of 1757 and so contemporary with section 4 (Series 4) of the volume. It has little relevance to the other compositions of 'Ornamental Sketches & Mouldings' in this section. The inscription may refer to the architect-sculptor Jean Boulogne, who was responsible for work on the choir of Antwerp Cathedral, Belgium in the late fourteenth century. Robert Adam had seen Antwerp on his way to Italy in 1754, when he admired Peter Paul Rubens' Descent from the Cross (1611-14), which 'almost exceeds ones imagination' (see (National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Clerk of Penicuik Collection, GD18/4743). Adam found Antwerp 'a very noble city' (see J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.243). The alternative reading would be the sixteenth-century sculptor Giovanni Bologna working in Florence.
Level
Drawing
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