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You are here: CollectionsOnline  /  Italy: Baia: the Temple of Diana. View of the interior of a domed temple, that of Diana at Baia. In the foreground are several large ruined flooded vaults.
  • image Adam vol.57/14

Reference number

Adam vol.57/14

Purpose

Italy: Baia: the Temple of Diana. View of the interior of a domed temple, that of Diana at Baia. In the foreground are several large ruined flooded vaults.

Aspect

Perspective

Inscribed

Inscribed in pencil in a contemporary hand Baia; in ink 14

Signed and dated

  • Undated, probably April 1755.

Medium and dimensions

Pencil, grey and brown washes207 x 310

Hand

Robert Adam

Watermark

Armorial

Notes

In April 1755 Robert Adam wrote of 'the Temples of Diana, Mercurey & Venus, of which my friend Clérisseau & I took sketches to enable our friends to partake of our pleasures' (National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Clerk of Penicuik Collection, GD18/4769); this is one of such drawings that has survived. Charles-Louis Clérisseau's version of the same view is shown in Adam vol.57/27. The Temple of Venus is, in fact, part of a large complex of baths and recreation rooms dating from the 1st-3rd centuries AD called the Baths of Nero, which included the Temple of Mercury and the Temple of Diana nearby. There is a contemporary account of the Temple of Diana in Paoli, Avanzi Delle Antichita Esistenti a Pozzuoli Cuma e Baja, Naples, 1768, f.31 and pl.LII; the vaulted ruins in the foreground of Adam's drawing are shown in pl.LV.

Level

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

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