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  • image Adam vol.7/174
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Reference number

Adam vol.7/174

Purpose

London: Parliament House (designs for). Unfinished design for a doorway showing the royal arms with lion and unicorn on either side; above are dentils, Egg-and-Dart and modillions, with consoles decorated with oak leaves. The door jambs are elaboratedly decorated with foliage, with figure at the base.

Aspect

Elevation

Inscribed

Inscribed in pencil in a contemporary hand base [?] of the Temple of AEsculapius / Door of do temple / Daphne/ palmae and Book of ornam [?] and Book of ornamt

Signed and dated

  • Undated, probably 1762/63

Medium and dimensions

Pen, pencil 419 x 327

Hand

James Adam (attributed to)

Notes

This drawing is an adaptation of the door to the Temple of Aesculapius, which was engraved by Antonio Zucchi (1726-95) for Robert Adam's The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro, 1764, pl.XLV, with a larger detail of the doorhead as pl.XLVI. The decoration shown here is considerably more delicate and refined than the original although Robert Adam observed that 'if we abstract from the Defect of the angular Modillions in this Door, some of the other Parts of it are very fine. It may indeed by objected with Reason, that it is too much ornamented for an Outside Door . . . the particular Enrichments of this Door are so finely executed, that they afforded the highest Satisfaction' (The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro, 1764). Zucchi was working on these details with James Adam in Venice in the summer of 1760. The introduction of the royal arms suggests that this was part of James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/3. There is a detail and variation of the console and doorhead in Adam vol.7/195.

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