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Capriccio showing figures beside a sarcophagus, a column and ruined decorated panels in a landscape setting with trees and vegetation. In the distance are battlemented towers and walls.
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Reference number
Adam vol.56/63
Purpose
Capriccio showing figures beside a sarcophagus, a column and ruined decorated panels in a landscape setting with trees and vegetation. In the distance are battlemented towers and walls.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
In ink 6; and on both album leaf and drawing in red ink 63
Signed and dated
- Datable to probably 1756
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, black chalk, pen and grey washes (262 x 379), all four corners trimmed diagonally; the sheet has been folded vertically in the centre
Hand
Robert Adam (1728-1792)
Verso
Pen outline of a female figure holding an urn under her arm.
Notes
There are several similar pen and wash studies in volume 56, such as Adam vol.56/65, which differ from the landscape garden compositions (of which vol.56/41 is typical). They show the influence of Jean-Baptiste Lallemand (1716-1803) more strongly in their emphasis on the ruin and its setting, which in this case derived from the Aurelian walls of Rome. The composition of many of these studies can be compared with the smaller and more freely drawn pen and ink sketches in volume 55 (see particularly Adam vol.55/98-110). The trimmed corners suggest that they were originally in another album and the disjointed numbering suggests that they have been rearranged (see Adam vol.56/94-97).
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