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Italy: Baia. View of two vaulted chambers, ruined and flooded. In the distant landscape is the Temple of Diana at Baia.
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Reference number
Adam vol.57/15
Purpose
Italy: Baia. View of two vaulted chambers, ruined and flooded. In the distant landscape is the Temple of Diana at Baia.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in pencil in a contemporary hand Baia; in ink 15
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably April 1755.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, grey, brown and blue washes; pencil framing line193 x 302 (trimmed)
Hand
Robert Adam
Watermark
monti within circle (a clear Italian watermark that is found frequently amongst Adam's drawings of the 1755-57 period)
Notes
This is one of a number of drawings made of the temple complex at the same time as that of the Temple of Diana in Adam vol.57/14. There are other views of the Temple of Diana in Adam vol.57/33 and 57/38, the latter by Charles-Louis Clérisseau, which also shows the Temple of Venus. Both temples were part of the same large complex of baths dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. A plan and an account of these buildings is given in Paoli, Avanzi Delle Antichita Esistenti a Pozzuoli Cuma e Baja, Naples, 1768, f.32, and a view of the vaults that Robert Adam depicted appears as pl.LV, 'che chiamansi Truglio', that is, 'cave'. Two vaults are shown in the foreground here, while in Adam vol.57/23 three vaults are shown, with the Temple of Venus in the distance. All three drawings show Adam and Clérisseau assessing the picturesque values of each scene.
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
Robert Adam, The Creative Mind: from the Sketch to the Finished Drawing, Sir John Soane's Museum, 4 October 1996 - 1 March 1997; The Frick Collection, New York, December 1997 - April 1998; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, May - June 1998; The Octagon Museum, Washington, July 1998 - January 1999; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, February - March 1999
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