Inscribed
Inscribed in pencil in a contemporary hand Lago; and in ink 2
Signed and dated
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, grey and brown washes223 x 264
Hand
Robert Adam
Notes
This may be the same house that appears in the background of Adam vol.57/4, a view which is also inscribed 'Lago', as are Adam vol. 57/3, 5, 7, 8 and 9. It is possible that they all represent the domestic architecture of the small port of Pozzuoli, a panoramic view of which is found in Paoli's Avanzi Delle Antichita Esistenti a Pozzuoli Cuma e Baja, Naples, 1768, Tab.IV. The inscription could refer to several of the notable lakes west of Naples, such as Averno or Fusaro, both of which Robert Adam visited. It might equally refer to the Lago d'Agnano, which was not drained until 1870. On the south bank of the latter was the Grotta del Cane, which Adam visited and described thus in a letter of 8th April: 'a small cave from the ground of which there issues a sulphurous flame which at once destroys any animal who is forced into it.' (J. Fleming, Robert Adam and his Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.154). 'Lago' might also refer to the Lago Fucino, which Adam may have visited on his return to Rome via Cassino.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
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
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George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings
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