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Unfinished ceiling design showing four compartments, one of which has square decoration around an empty central oval, below is grotesque decoration and a semi-circular panel containing a landscape; beside this is a square compartment with figures at altars.
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Reference number
Adam vol.26/174
Purpose
Unfinished ceiling design showing four compartments, one of which has square decoration around an empty central oval, below is grotesque decoration and a semi-circular panel containing a landscape; beside this is a square compartment with figures at altars.
Aspect
Ceiling plan
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink in a contemporary hand From Mr: Buiers at Rome
Signed and dated
- Undated, but may date from after Robert Adam's return from Italy
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen
440 x 563
Hand
Giuseppe Manocch, after James Byres
Notes
This is a larger version of part of the drawing in Adam vol.26/165; rather than the lunette form shown in that drawing, the composition here is for a rectangular ceiling around a central oval. Like other such drawings after James Byres (1734-1817), it is likely to be a copy made in London. The inscription relating to James Byres (1734-1817) appears in the same hand on other designs, Adam vol.26/166, 167, 170 and 176 and it would suggest that they were inscribed in London. All are unfinished and may well be copies, probably by Giuseppe Manocchi (1731-82), after the complete originals. 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 J. 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).
There is also a more finished version of this composition by Manocchi, dated 1769 and annotated Sofitto de Vaticano, in the Royal Collection, Windsor (BM283; RL11603).
There is also a more finished version of this composition by Manocchi, dated 1769 and annotated Sofitto de Vaticano, in the Royal Collection, Windsor (BM283; RL11603).
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