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Capriccio showing a broken sarcophagus with three statues in an arcade as its front panel. It is set among ruins with trees in the background.
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Reference number
Adam vol.56/66
Purpose
Capriccio showing a broken sarcophagus with three statues in an arcade as its front panel. It is set among ruins with trees in the background.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
In ink 9 and in red ink 66
Signed and dated
- Datable to probably c.1756.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, and watercolour: drawn within a ink circle of 90 dia. Sheet size 100 x 96. The lower two corners trimmed diagonally
Hand
Robert Adam (1728-1792)
Verso
Circle drawn in ink, which was probably intended to be filled by a composition similar to the one on the recto.
Notes
This is one of a number of small, circular compositions (see Adam vol.56/68-70, 73, 75, 81, 83-4, 86, 90-1, and SM Drawer 48/6/4); several similar to this were on the backing sheet, which was evidently cut up when the volume was put together. The sarcophagus was a favourite subject, and there are other circular compositions, similar in both size and subject-matter, amongst the drawings by Charles-Louis Clérisseau in The Hermitage (see Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820) Dessins du musée de l'Ermitage Saint-Petersbourg catalogue of exhibition held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1995, p.145), some of which were subsequently engraved (see Paris op.cit. p.144). There is a larger drawing by Robert Adam of a similar sarcophagus in Adam vol.57/148.
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