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Italy: Rome, Borghese Palace. Study for an interior wall elevation showing a chimneypiece with mirror above; above the door entablature is an elaborate Pompeian decoration with an eagle in a wreath, above which is a painting of two animals. To the left-hand side is the elevation and profile of a chair.
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Reference number
Adam vol.26/30
Purpose
Italy: Rome, Borghese Palace. Study for an interior wall elevation showing a chimneypiece with mirror above; above the door entablature is an elaborate Pompeian decoration with an eagle in a wreath, above which is a painting of two animals. To the left-hand side is the elevation and profile of a chair.
Aspect
Elevations, profile
Inscribed
verso inscribed in pencil in a nineteenth-century hand interior of a room in the Palace Borghese at Rome / finished by Mario Asprucci Architect - 1805
Signed and dated
- Dated on verso 1805 - see note below
Medium and dimensions
Pen, watercolour
265 x 378
Hand
Mario Asprucci
Watermark
3 lines of names
Notes
It seems probable that this drawing was added to the volume between 1821 and 1833 during the time it was in the possession of Charles Heathcote Tatham (1772-1842). The verso pencil inscription cannot be completely relied upon, for Mario Asprucci died in 1804. There are drawings for the Villa (Palazzo) Borghese in another album now in the RIBA, which includes decorative schemes for the Borghese interior by 'Maria' Asprucci, presumably Mario. They were acquired by Tatham 'in the years 1794-5 and 96' when he was in Rome (see his sale catalogue of July 1833 at Christie's). (For the relationship between Asprucci and Tatham in Rome see F. Salmon, 'Charles Heathcote Tatham and the Italian Academies', Burlington Magazine, 140, 1998, p.89.) The Borghese eagle is probably that above the door in this elevation.
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