bar scale of Roman palmi (pricked in)

as above and dimensions given

Pen, pencil, slight pricking for transfer, within single and double ruled borders on laid paper (479 x 695)

Soane

J Whatman, fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche with GR below

Made to a scale of Roman palmi, the bar scale has 12 divisions and relates to the scales of measured drawings of details of the Pantheon (Nos 6-8 q.v.), and is probably after the same Italian draughtsman. The marked dimensions do not always tally so that, for example, of two mouldings marked 2 7/8 (of an inch) one is larger than the other.

The Temple of the Sun was built in the third century A.D. The once considerable remains of a temple in the Colonna Gardens that had disappeared by about 1630 leaving only a large fragment of a corner of a pediment was thought to have been the Temple of the Sun. Later archaeologists have identified it as the Temple of Serapis, and subsequently as the Temple of Hercules and Dionysus. Presently, there is a case for reverting to the Temple of the Sun. Thomas Hardwick drew a similar study labelling it 'Entablature of Nero's Frontispiece' (RIBA Drawings Collection SB58/4) another name given to it at that time.

For sketch details of the entablature see (in Sketchbooks catalogue) 'Miscellaneous Sketches', 1780-2 (SM volume 40, f. 78verso) where the dimensions for the entablature correspond well with the drawing catalogued above.

P.du Prey, John Soane's architectural education 1753-80, 1977, pp. 121-2

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