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View or more likely a capriccio of a ruined vaulted section of an apse, with an irregular two-storied house on one side, and ruins on the other, set in a landscape with cypress trees.
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Reference number
Adam vol.57/59
Purpose
View or more likely a capriccio of a ruined vaulted section of an apse, with an irregular two-storied house on one side, and ruins on the other, set in a landscape with cypress trees.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink 59
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 or 1756.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, grey, brown and blue washes150 x 248
Hand
Robert Adam
Watermark
dove on monti
Notes
The building and the viewpoint here are typical of drawings of the Temple of Venus and Rome near the Arch of Constantine, of which Robert Adam and Charles-Louis Clérisseau made several studies (see J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, pl.50). However, the interior in this drawing lacks the characteristic apse decoration, and the adjoining buildings do not correspond with those usually shown in the mid-eighteenth century. The drawing style of the group of three cypress trees on the left is typical of Jean-Baptiste Lallemand, whose example Adam is evidently following here. This drawing is probably a capriccio based on the temple ruins, as is the case with other drawings in the Roman section of Adam volume 57.
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