• Undated, probably 1760 - 1763

Pencil, pen, grey wash 289 x 290

Antonio Zucchi (attributed to)

This composition is undoubtedly an invention of James Adam and may be compared with his designs for British and Scottish Orders of 1762 and c.1764 (see Adam vol.7/69 and 163). Like them, it may be associated with his scheme for Parliament of 1762/3 found in Adam volume 7. There is a variant on this design in the same hand in Adam vol.26/172, where the figure of Britannia has been replaced by an elaborate trident supported by dolphins. The composition is used again in a pencil sketch for an Order with Pegasus (see Adam vol.7/193) and also in another using dolphins (see Adam vol.7/13), of which there is a version by the Scottish architect John Baxter (d.1798) in the National Gallery of Scotland (RSA 540) and a fuller version in album 1 of the Hardwick drawings in the RIBA (see 1/69). Baxter was in Italy in 1761 and, as a protégé of Sir James Clerk, probably knew James Adam; he 'made many careful copies of these Antique capitals' and possibly worked for Adam in this capacity (see Designs of Desire, Architectural and Ornamental Prints and Drawings 1500-1850, catalogue of an exhibition held at the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1999, p.266).
Apart from the thumbnail sketch of the Scottish Order (Adam vol.7/163), the rest of these drawings may be attributed to Antonio Zucchi (1726-95). The drawing here has been squared, presumably for enlargement or engraving. There are several illustrations of similar capitals from various classical sources in G.B. Piranesi's Trofei di Ottaviano Augusto (1753) and a dolphin one from the mausoleum of Augustus in his Le Antichità Romane (1756).

Drawing

'Bob the Roman': Heroic Antiquity and the Architecture of Robert Adam, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 27 June - 27 September 2003; New York School of Interior Design Gallery, 29 September - 4 December 2004

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