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Unfinished record drawing showing alternative details for the decoration of a dome or vault; one has figures beside an altar divided by a vault with grotesque decoration, the other has panels of foliage with rosettes and figures.
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Reference number
Adam vol.26/165
Purpose
Unfinished record drawing showing alternative details for the decoration of a dome or vault; one has figures beside an altar divided by a vault with grotesque decoration, the other has panels of foliage with rosettes and figures.
Aspect
Ceiling plans
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1760 - 1763
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen
296 x 366
Hand
Giuseppe Manocchi
Notes
Similar panels with foliage and rosettes can be seen in drawings by Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820) for the wall decoration of his museum for Catherine II (see Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820) Dessins du musée de l'Ermitage Saint-Petersbourg, catalogue of exhibition at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1995, p.157). Both alternative designs in this drawing may be compared with the scaled-down copies after ceiling designs by James Byres (1734-1817) (see Adam vol.26/167 and 174); the draughtsmanship here and in the two after Byres is close, and can be compared with that in the drawings in Adam vol.26/31 and 32, also attributed by Giuseppe Manocchi.
James Byres turned from painting to architecture c.1758 while in Rome, and in 1762 he won a prize in the Concorso Clementino. At that time he was known to James Adam's circle (see Fleming Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.378.). There is an album of finished ceiling designs attributed to Byres in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, USA (see J. Harris, Catalogue of British Drawings for Architecture, Decoration, Sculpture and Landscape Gardening 1550-1900 in American Collections, New Jersey, 1971, p.41).
James Byres turned from painting to architecture c.1758 while in Rome, and in 1762 he won a prize in the Concorso Clementino. At that time he was known to James Adam's circle (see Fleming Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.378.). There is an album of finished ceiling designs attributed to Byres in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, USA (see J. Harris, Catalogue of British Drawings for Architecture, Decoration, Sculpture and Landscape Gardening 1550-1900 in American Collections, New Jersey, 1971, p.41).
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