[15] Design for a six-columned triumphal arch, 14 February 1803

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Bank of England
  - Bank of England, City of London for the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, 1788-1834 (1356)
    - 1799-1810 Expansions north-west and rebuilding of existing offices (487)
      - Tivoli Corner 1803-1805 (61)

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Reference number

SM volume 73/124

Purpose

[15] Design for a six-columned triumphal arch, 14 February 1803

Aspect

Elevation; ground floor plan; rough (pencil) elevation of a door with a pediment with consoles; and rough (pencil) alternative elevation for the attic

Scale

bar scale

Inscribed

(capitals) The Bank of England and some dimensions given

Signed and dated

Lincolns Inn Fields Feb^y 14^th1803

Hand

Soane office and Soane

Notes

The ground floor plan in this drawing shows a triumphal arch with paired Corinthian columns set at an angle to the main face. Pedestals for the added columns are not included. The elevation accords with earlier designs showing single columns.

Some of the ornament has been cancelled in pencil, suggesting the omission of the niche, frieze and caduceus decorating the main face. The caduceus, a winged staff with two entwined snakes, is a common motif at the Bank. In ancient Greece, it was the symbol of the messenger, ensuring a safe passage (Hall, p. 55). In classical mythology, it is attributed to Hermes (Mercury), messenger of the Gods, inventor of the alphabet and protector of merchants and traders (Lewis and Darley, p.66). The caduceus motif at the Bank invoked the latter characterisation.

Literature

P. Lewis and G. Darley, Dictionary of Ornament, 1986
J. Hall, Subjects & Symbols in Art, 1992

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

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).