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Italy: Mergellina: 'Tomb of Virgil'. View of the so-called Tomb of Virgil at Mergellina in its landscape setting. In the background is a pathway and steps, leading to Posilippo.
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Reference number
Adam vol.57/21
Purpose
Italy: Mergellina: 'Tomb of Virgil'. View of the so-called Tomb of Virgil at Mergellina in its landscape setting. In the background is a pathway and steps, leading to Posilippo.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in pencil in a contemporary hand Virgile Napole; in ink 21
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably April 1755.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, brown, blue and grey washes205 x 293
Hand
Robert Adam
Notes
This is Robert Adam's version of the drawing of Virgil's Tomb by Charles-Louis Clérisseau in Adam vol.57/16, and is the more prosaic, albeit more honest, version. Adam has not shown the distant prospect over the bay at Posilippo that gave Clérisseau's drawing both depth and greater interest. A plan and description of the tomb is given in Paoli, Avanzi Delle Antichita Esistenti a Pozzuoli Cuma e Baja, Naples, 1768, pl.X. Adam wrote from Naples on 8 April 1755 that he had seen the 'Tomb of Virgil' and its antiquity 'induced me to make several sketches of it' (National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Clerk of Penicuik Collection, GD18/4769); this drawing is presumably one of these sketches.
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
The Adam Brothers in Rome: Drawings from the Grand Tour, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 25 September 2008 - 14 February 2009
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