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Capriccio showing part of a ruined circular temple on a rocky outcrop with an aqueduct and circular building in the landscape in the background, and water in the foreground.
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Reference number
Adam vol.57/85
Purpose
Capriccio showing part of a ruined circular temple on a rocky outcrop with an aqueduct and circular building in the landscape in the background, and water in the foreground.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink 85
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 or 1756.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen; brown, grey and blue washes179 x 123
Hand
Robert Adam
Verso
Pencil capriccio of a group of classical sculptures including an urn with stele on either side.
Notes
The temple is close to the Temple of the Vesta at Tivoli, as is the immediate setting. There is a more accurate drawing of the same view in Adam vol.57/91, and two by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand in the Clerk Collection, Scotland (Clerk 119 and 192). The aqueduct may be based on the Acqua Marcia and the circular building may be the Tempio della Tosse mausoleum, although their juxtaposition is an imaginative one. Robert Adam was at Tivoli for some time in June 1755 staying with Allan Ramsay in the Villa d'Este (J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.174). However, the drawing being a capriccio may have been made at any time.
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