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Design for a rectangular ceiling with an irregular central compartment surrounded by eight panels, each containing two or three figures, divided by grotesque decoration.
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Reference number
Adam vol.26/169
Purpose
Design for a rectangular ceiling with an irregular central compartment surrounded by eight panels, each containing two or three figures, divided by grotesque decoration.
Aspect
Ceiling plan
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1760 - 1763
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, watercolour, bodycolour; red border
584 x 585
Hand
Giuseppe Manocchi
Notes
This is one of ten (Adam vol.26/168, 169, 179-182, 185, 187, 189, 190), highly-finished, coloured drawings by Giuseppe Manocchi (1731-82), which parallel those found in Adam volumes 15 and 16. The composition here can be compared with a ceiling of the Palace of Augustus (Livia) (see C. Cameron, The Baths of the Romans, 1772, pl.LIV) and may be one of the drawings commissioned by James Adam in 1762 as from 'Livia's Baths'; there are others in Adam vol.26/93 and 94. The subject-matter of the eight panels here differs from those shown in Cameron. There are several copies by Manocchi of Cameron ceiling drawings amongst the Hardwick albums in the RIBA (see J. Lever, Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, L-N, London, 1973, p.163).
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
'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