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Italy: unidentified location ?near Lago d'Averno. View of the entrance to a tunnel through a round-headed arch recessed in a rocky cliff, with slit windows above. It is approached by a path over a small footbridge beside a waterfall.
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Reference number
Adam vol. 57/5
Purpose
Italy: unidentified location ?near Lago d'Averno. View of the entrance to a tunnel through a round-headed arch recessed in a rocky cliff, with slit windows above. It is approached by a path over a small footbridge beside a waterfall.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in pencil in a contemporary hand Lago di S[tanzano?]; in ink 5
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755.
Medium and dimensions
Pen and grey wash266 x 230
Hand
Robert Adam
Notes
This may be a drawing of the entrance to one of the tunnels around the Lago d'Averno, one of which was the Grotto of the Sibyl that Robert Adam referred to as 'The Infernal Lake, the Grotto of the Sybille, The Temple of Apollo' in his letter of April 1755 (National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Clerk of Penicuik Collection, GD18/4769). The archway depicted is possibly the brick gateway and its ventilation shafts, although it might equally be the tunnel between the Lago d'Averno and Cumae. There is a view of the passageway beside the sea at the Grotto of Pausillipo in Abbé de Saint-Non's Voyage Pittoresque en Sicile et Naples, Paris, 1781-86, vol.II, p.165, and another one shown in Adam vol.57/8.
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