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  • image Adam vol.26/63

Reference number

Adam vol.26/63

Purpose

Record drawing of a funerary altar with a rectangular inscription panel, flanked by two satyrs' heads. Between the heads is a swag that incorporates a lion attacking a deer, below which are two small birds, and, at the corners, are two eagles with raised beaks.

Aspect

Perspective

Inscribed

Lettered on the funerary altar inscription panel ASPRE NATE [?] / DUJ. FRVIQR [?]/ PATRI SUIS. / TOR QVATUS [?] / PRIMUS [?]

Signed and dated

  • Undated, probably 1760 - 63

Medium and dimensions

Black chalk 265 x 200

Hand

Nicolas-François-David Lhuiller (attributed to)

Notes

This is a companion drawing to the altar shown in Adam vol.26/62, which may show another face of the composition. There is a similar drawing in a similar hand in the Sir John Soane's Museum (see SM 129/135). The classical inscription panels shows five lines of funerary text in Latin.
The drawings may both be studies of the two principal faces. The drawing is probably derived from similar forms shown in J. J. Boissard, Antiquitatum Romanorum, Frankfurt, 1598. Bernard de Montfauçon (1655-1741) used these in his section on 'Urnes Sépulcrales' (see L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures, Paris, 1719, 10 vols., vol.5 part 1).

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