bar scale of feet

as above

Pen, cream, black and sepia washes, pencil, within double ruled and wash border on laid paper backed with wove paper (627 x 980)

Soane

J Honig & Zoonen and beehive within cartouche

It is assumed that this is a copy since it is unlikely that Soane embarked on his own reconstruction of the vast Thermae of Diocletian, the central hall of which was converted by Michelangelo into the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. That church was measured and drawn by Soane, with Thomas Hardwick. Hardwick's plan of the Baths of Diocletian (RIBA Drawings Collection, SB60/8) was an enlarged copy from a drawing by James Byres (1734-1817), a Scottish architect resident in Rome. Presumably the same source served for Soane since comparison with Hardwick's drawing shows them to be almost identical. Hardwick added some dimensions to his plan noting that 'The dimensions figured on this Plan were from actual / Admeasurements in 1777 - by Thomas Hardwick - 'Soane re-used the drawing for the fourth of his Royal Academy lectures (IV, drawing 57). Though filed with other of these lecture drawings, the drawing style and Dutch-made drawing paper watermarked with a beehive (shared by several of the measured drawings made 1778-80) indicate a drawing made or copied in Rome. Built A.D. 298-306, the Thermae of Diocletain were the largest of all the ancient Roman baths, covering an area of about 380 by 370 metres.

P.du Prey, J.Lever (editor), Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, volume G-K, 1973, p.93²

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