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Italy: Aquino: Santa Maria Libera. Drawing of a wall sarcophagus in Santa Maria Libera at Aquino, showing a rectangular relief panel supported by two human head consoles, flanked by pilasters.
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Reference number
Adam vol.57/37
Purpose
Italy: Aquino: Santa Maria Libera. Drawing of a wall sarcophagus in Santa Maria Libera at Aquino, showing a rectangular relief panel supported by two human head consoles, flanked by pilasters.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in pencil in a contemporary hand Madonna della Libera route de Naples; in ink 37
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 or 1756.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, grey wash227 x 342
Hand
Robert Adam
Watermark
St Esprit type
Notes
Santa Maria Libera is an eleventh-century basilica incorporating the remains of the temple of Ercole Liberatore at Aquino, which Robert Adam probably visited after Monte Cassino on his way back to Rome in April 1755. The sarcophagus depicted was probably part of the extensive classical ruins around the church. Both Adam and Charles-Louis Clérisseau visited the site again in 1756 during their tour to Sora; there is a pen and wash drawing of the church made at that time in the Clerk Collection, Scotland (Clerk 159).
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