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Capriccio showing the interior of a coffered and barrel-vaulted hall with relief and free-standing sculpture, doorway and curtained screen; beyond is shown a room with a framed painting over the chimneypiece.
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Reference number
Adam vol.56/137
Purpose
Capriccio showing the interior of a coffered and barrel-vaulted hall with relief and free-standing sculpture, doorway and curtained screen; beyond is shown a room with a framed painting over the chimneypiece.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink 100; in red ink 137.
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1756 or 1757.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, brown and grey washes; ink framing line213 x 208
Hand
Robert Adam
Notes
According to John Fleming, this is a 'Design for interior decoration in the antique taste by Robert Adam, 1756-57' (see Fleming Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome (London, 1962, repr. 1978), caption to pl.68). The drawing is unlike other drawings in this volume in that the room shown beyond the curtain is typically eighteenth-century with a carved chimneypiece (having a figure on the side jamb) and a framed painting. The two-tiered circular base for the standing figure is also found in Adam vol.57/139. Such a combination of antique and modern elements can also be seen in Adam's 'Design for a Roman Ruin' (see Tait Robert Adam: drawings and imagination (Cambridge, 1993), p.33, fig.29). There is a copy of this drawing by C J Richardson (1806-1871) in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (P&D 93.G.8/30).
Literature
Rep. Fleming Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome (John Murray, London, 1962, repr. 1978), pl.68
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
In Pursuit of Antiquity: Drawings by the Giants of British Neo-Classicism, Sir John Soane's Museum, 1 February - 1 June 2008; Tchoban Foundation Museum für Architekturzeichnung, Berlin, 3 October 2015 - 14 February 2016
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