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[6] Penultimate design on an elliptical plan and with alternative wings and elevational treatment, by George Dance, 1778
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- Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
Reference number
SM 45/1/13 recto
Purpose
[6] Penultimate design on an elliptical plan and with alternative wings and elevational treatment, by George Dance, 1778
Aspect
Plan, elevation (with cut-out and pasted elevation of stepped Pantheon-type dome, drawn on thin secretary paper, added), cross section with rough pencil additions of elevation of doorway and of part section; (verso, pencil, Soane) slight elevation of domed two-storey building; neat elevation of lidded urn on stepped base; rough plan that is a shallow Greek cross but with two semicircular ends; and section through a room with bow window related to Soane's designs for a summer dining room see (Soane's early works, 1770-1785) Downhill: County Down, Northern Ireland: Unexecuted design for a summer dining room for Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry ...
Scale
to a scale
Inscribed
(recto) dimensions (added by Soane) including 597 feet amended to 633 for the main body of the front
Signed and dated
- Aug.10.1778 (Soane)
Medium and dimensions
Pen and wash, shaded, pencil, four dabs of red sealing wax on verso, on laid paper with two fold marks (one sheet with strips added on three sides, two later repairs) (562 x 609)
Hand
George Dance (1741-1825); verso, Soane
Watermark
- - T T - - ? - O T T I V (Italian made? Heawood, I, under 'names' shown none with two TTs in the middle)
Notes
Additions, erasures, alterations and the strips added to the original drawing sheet suggest that the design (consisting of a stretched elliptical plan with two short pairs of wings with temple-fronted ends), was amended so that one pair of wings was extended by the addition of colonnades on a semicircular plan stopped by (temple-fronted) pavilion ends. In the final design (SM 45/1/35) the option of the larger curved wings was chosen. These great courtyards bring to mind Bernini's piazza in front of St Peter's in Rome. Or, more mundanely, to Soane's unsuccessful (second) competition design for St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, 1777.
Internally, the architect experiments with different room plans; those on the main axis and on the three cross-axes being symmetrical on either side. The four, main (and unlabelled) compartments have centralised plans of increasing complexity.
Externally, the designer gives alternative treatments to the fronts either side of the domed centre. There is a Schinkel-esque giant order and mezzanine with windows on the right-hand side of the bowed centre, and single-storey columns support a deep frieze with bas-relief on the left-hand side. And the pavilions with porticos have a pediment or a drum crowned by sculpture.
Though the drawing is dated 19 August 1778, by which time Soane (having left England on 18 March) had been abroad for five months, the drawing is in George Dance's hand with only the dimensions in Soane's hand. The drawing technique of, say, the elevation is certainly Dance's - the minutely drawn equestrian statues either side of the entrance support the attribution. The drawing paper with its unreadable watermark appears to be Italian - which is puzzling since logically Dance would have made the drawing in London and he generally used Whatman or imported Dutch drawing paper. Since sealing wax was sometimes used to affix drawings to the drawing board, it's presence does not necessarily imply that the drawing sheet was sent in the post. But could it have been a wrapper for drawings sent by Soane for Dance's comments which was then used by Dance to draw on?
Internally, the architect experiments with different room plans; those on the main axis and on the three cross-axes being symmetrical on either side. The four, main (and unlabelled) compartments have centralised plans of increasing complexity.
Externally, the designer gives alternative treatments to the fronts either side of the domed centre. There is a Schinkel-esque giant order and mezzanine with windows on the right-hand side of the bowed centre, and single-storey columns support a deep frieze with bas-relief on the left-hand side. And the pavilions with porticos have a pediment or a drum crowned by sculpture.
Though the drawing is dated 19 August 1778, by which time Soane (having left England on 18 March) had been abroad for five months, the drawing is in George Dance's hand with only the dimensions in Soane's hand. The drawing technique of, say, the elevation is certainly Dance's - the minutely drawn equestrian statues either side of the entrance support the attribution. The drawing paper with its unreadable watermark appears to be Italian - which is puzzling since logically Dance would have made the drawing in London and he generally used Whatman or imported Dutch drawing paper. Since sealing wax was sometimes used to affix drawings to the drawing board, it's presence does not necessarily imply that the drawing sheet was sent in the post. But could it have been a wrapper for drawings sent by Soane for Dance's comments which was then used by Dance to draw on?
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 11 September - 3 December 1999; Centro Palladio, Vicenza, April - August 2000; Hôtel de Rohan, Paris, January - April 2001; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, 16 May - 3 September 2001; Real Academia des Bellas Artes, Madrid, October - December 2001
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