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Italy: Rome, Santa Maria del Priorato. Design showing the entrance elevation of the church; below is a plan of the façade and entrance steps. Below the framing lines at the bottom of the sheet is part of another plan which has been trimmed.
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Reference number
Adam vol.27/48
Purpose
Italy: Rome, Santa Maria del Priorato. Design showing the entrance elevation of the church; below is a plan of the façade and entrance steps. Below the framing lines at the bottom of the sheet is part of another plan which has been trimmed.
Aspect
Elevation, plans
Inscribed
Inscribed in pencil in a later hand inside of houses
Signed and dated
- Undated, possibly early 1760s
Medium and dimensions
Pen, double ink framing lines, tracing on silk paper 304 x 182, the sheet has two horizontal foldlines
Hand
Adam Office
Notes
In the opinion of A. A. Tait, this drawing relates in time and place or subject to those contained in Adam volume 26.This drawing, which is clearly a copy, probably belongs with similar copy drawings (see Adam vol.26/177 and 178). Work on remodelling the church of Santa Maria del Priorato and its surroundings was undertaken by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78) between 1764 and 1766, and there are several drawings for it in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (see C. Denison, Exploring Rome: Piranesi and His Contemporaries, Cambridge Massachusetts and London, 1993, pp.52-55). This drawing shows the attic storey later destroyed by French artillery during the Risorgimento of 1867 (see J. Wilton-Ely, Piranesi as Architect and Designer, London, 1993, p.98). The copy may have been made for James Adam before his departure for Rome in May 1763. There is also part of an earlier plan at the bottom of the sheet, outside the ink framing line.
Literature
D. Stillman, 'Robert Adam and Piranesi' in Essays in the History of Architecture presented to Rudolf Wittkower, 1967, pl.XXI/3J. Wilton-Ely, Piranesi as Architect and Designer, London, 1993, pl.95
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