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Unfinished study showing the interior of a church with a three-bay portico with balustrade above; to one side is a large altar [?] with segmental pediment. A vaulted roof is supported by pilasters between niches.
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Reference number
Adam vol.4/88
Purpose
Unfinished study showing the interior of a church with a three-bay portico with balustrade above; to one side is a large altar [?] with segmental pediment. A vaulted roof is supported by pilasters between niches.
Aspect
Perspectiveverso details
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 - 56
Medium and dimensions
Pen over pencil guidelines235 x 273
Hand
Robert Adam
Verso
Three architectural details in pencil showing a console and part of a cornice.
Notes
In the opinion of A. A. Tait, this drawing relates in time and place or subject to those contained in Adam volume 55.This drawing may be a variation on the interior composition of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Rome. In June 1755 Robert Adam wrote of '... making an exact plan of a church which is built upon the old foundations of Diocletian's Baths and fitted up by an Italian architect, one Vanvitelli: but I think it may be greatly helped and will make a noble design so that sooner or later I will make a new design for it with all the alterations in the antique style' (see J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.352) This drawing may be compared with the academic studies in Adam vol.55/91 and 143. There are three drawings of Diocletian's Baths in the Clerk Collection, Scotland (see Clerk 50, 51 and 58), and copies of them in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia. There are views of Santa Maria degli Angeli in the Clerk collection (see Clerk 2, 3, 4 and 5).
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
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