Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Design after the antique for a ceiling composed in cruciform with a central circle containing a head with pointed aureole and four tripartite semi-circular panels containing figures. Between these are four heads encircled by foliage.
Browse
Reference number
Adam vol.26/179
Purpose
Design after the antique for a ceiling composed in cruciform with a central circle containing a head with pointed aureole and four tripartite semi-circular panels containing figures. Between these are four heads encircled by foliage.
Aspect
Ceiling plan
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1760 - 1763
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, watercolour, bodycolour; black border
434 x 494
Hand
Giuseppe Manocchi
Watermark
partail name
Notes
This is one of a set of highly-finished, coloured drawings of a similar size (see Adam vol.26/168, 169, 179-182, 185, 187, 189 and 190) by Giuseppe Manocchi (1731-82), which parallel those found in Adam volumes 15 and 16. The ceiling design in Adam vol.26/185 is almost identical to this one, as is the detail of the central head, and the broad composition is repeated in Adam vol.26/181 although in a circular form. The faces and figures may be compared with those in Robert Adam's 1750 copy of Bartoli, Picturae Antiquae Cryptarum Romanarum (p.107, pl.4). There is a version of this composition, partially coloured, in the Manocchi 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.93), which is inscribed in a contemporary hand 'Villa Hadriani'.
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