Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
London: Parliament House (designs for). Design for a long rectangular panel showing a bearded figure being persuaded to take a throne on steps. On either side are standing figures, one carrying the mace, and more are seated on benches in the background.
Browse
Reference number
Adam vol.7/24
Purpose
London: Parliament House (designs for). Design for a long rectangular panel showing a bearded figure being persuaded to take a throne on steps. On either side are standing figures, one carrying the mace, and more are seated on benches in the background.
Aspect
Elevation
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1762-63
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, brown wash with white heightening, partly oxidised, on brown washed paper
169 x 1277, two pieces of paper joined, with multiple vertical fold lines
Hand
Antonio Zucchi (attributed to)
Notes
The subject is likely to be the election of the Speaker of the Commons, who traditionally feigns reluctance to take up office. His assumption of office is shown in Adam vol.7/25. The mace shown carried in the group on the left is based on the design in Adam vol.7/19.
The set of pen and wash drawings with heightening, Adam vol.7/21-44, are all designs for the relief decoration of James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/63. The predominant theme is British history and the figures are dressed in either early seventeenth-century or classical costume. The principal draughtsman was Antonio Zucchi (1726-95), although some of the figure compositions are probably the work of Agostino Scara, of whom James Adam wrote that he '... draws figures full as well as Brunias...' (J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.279). Adam gave great emphasis in his Parliament scheme to the role of decorative sculpture and this probably explains the survival of so much material of this sort. In his unfinished essay on architectural theory of 1762, Adam explained: 'What is meant by outside decoration is sculpture, statues and bas-reliefs, together with foliage, trophies, frets, interlacings and a thousand such ornaments which, if properly applied, give such amazing magnificence and render an ediface so wonderfully interesting...' (Fleming, op.cit., p.317).
The set of pen and wash drawings with heightening, Adam vol.7/21-44, are all designs for the relief decoration of James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/63. The predominant theme is British history and the figures are dressed in either early seventeenth-century or classical costume. The principal draughtsman was Antonio Zucchi (1726-95), although some of the figure compositions are probably the work of Agostino Scara, of whom James Adam wrote that he '... draws figures full as well as Brunias...' (J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.279). Adam gave great emphasis in his Parliament scheme to the role of decorative sculpture and this probably explains the survival of so much material of this sort. In his unfinished essay on architectural theory of 1762, Adam explained: 'What is meant by outside decoration is sculpture, statues and bas-reliefs, together with foliage, trophies, frets, interlacings and a thousand such ornaments which, if properly applied, give such amazing magnificence and render an ediface so wonderfully interesting...' (Fleming, op.cit., p.317).
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