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Capriccio showing a plan for a large symmetrical building with a three-bay deep portico of fifteen bays opening into a square court of peristyle with steps and colonnade; two additional courts with bowed elevations.
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Reference number
Adam vol.10/1
Purpose
Capriccio showing a plan for a large symmetrical building with a three-bay deep portico of fifteen bays opening into a square court of peristyle with steps and colonnade; two additional courts with bowed elevations.
Aspect
Plan
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink Robt Adam Invt Roma 1756
Signed and dated
- 1756
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil, grey wash313 x 418, the sheet has a horizontal fold line across its centre
Hand
Robert Adam
Watermark
coat of arms and 4 lines of names
Notes
In the opinion of A. A. Tait, this drawing relates in time and place or subject to those contained in Adam volume 55.In Adam volume 10, drawings 1-23 are in a section separated from the rest by blank pages, noted in pencil 'There follow 6 blank pages'. Virtually all the drawings in this section are schemes in plan and elevation for a Parliament building modelled, probably by Robert Adam, on James Adam's scheme of 1762/3. The plan here in Adam vol.10/1, its elevation in 10/20 and the unfinished elevation in 10/18 were all doubtless seen by the compiler of the volume as relevant to the understanding of the Parliament drawings. It is worth noting that like volume 55, this volume was intended to contain a collection very different from these sketch plans and elevations. The flyleaf is noted in ink and in an eighteenth-century hand, subsequently scored out, 'The Contents/Shields/Quivers/Other warlike Instruments/Instruments of Sacrifice/ Musical Instruments/Ensigns of Deitys/Lamps.This plan and its elevation in Adam vol.10/20 can be related to Robert Adam's academic drawings in volume 55. This composition may also be compared with Adam vol.9/43.
Literature
Repr. J. Fleming, Robert Fleming and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, pl.48; A. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 2 vols., London, 1922, I, p.17.
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