Inscribed in red ink 146

• Undated, possibly mid-1740s or c.1750.

Red, black chalk, ink, brown wash 385 x 530

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

crossbow

This drawing by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1728-1778) is the companion to that in Adam vol.26/163, and together they have been generally identified as the two drawings that Robert Adam had in mind when he wrote in a letter on 4 July 1755: 'whatsoever I want of him he will do for me with pleasure, and is just now doing two drawings for me which will be both singular and clever' (see Fleming Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome (London, 1962), p.167). However, neither of these two Piranesi sketches would seem to match the special commission of being 'singular and clever', and that in Adam vol.26/163 is unfinished and was originally folded. Adam owned other Piranesi drawings and, in the sale of 1818 (Catalogue of A Valuable Collection of Antique Sculpture etc. R. Adam, Christie's, London, 21 & 22 May 1818), lot 28 of the second day, purchased by John Soane, contained works by both Piranesi and Charles-Louis Clérisseau (see Bolton The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 2 vols. (London, 1922), II, p.331). These two drawings may have come from this sale. The drawing here carries no numbering contemporaneous with Adam's time, only the red ink number of a later date; the other drawing is contained within volume 26, which is closely associated with James rather than Robert Adam, and which was bought by Charles Heathcote Tatham at the sale of 1821 (Christie's London Catalogue of the Effects of Robert Adam Esq. Dec. 9 July 1821 & following days). This drawing was probably placed in volume 56 on account of its funerary subject-matter, which complements that of the Adam-Clérisseau set whose sequence it concludes. The composition, building upwards from left to right by means of staircases, and the flamboyant use of wash, are typical of Piranesi's drawings of the Carceri of the mid-1740s, and the drawing may belong to this period (see Wilton-Ely Piranesi, Paestum & Soane (London, 2001), p.1, n.8). On the other hand, the watermark would suggest a date of c.1750.There is an attractive and large copy of this composition on tracing paper by C J Richardson (1806-1871) in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (P&D 93.G.8/59).

Rep. Tait Robert Adam, The Creative Mind: from the sketch to the finished drawing, catalogue of an exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum, London (London, 1996), p.21

Drawing

Soane: Connoisseur & Collector, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 6 April - 2 September 1995; The Frick Collection, New York, 30 April - 7 July 1996
Robert Adam, The Creative Mind: from the Sketch to the Finished Drawing, Sir John Soane's Museum, 4 October 1996 - 1 March 1997; The Frick Collection, New York, December 1997 - April 1998; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, May - June 1998; The Octagon Museum, Washington, July 1998 - January 1999; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, February - March 1999
Piranesi as Designer, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, 14 September 2007 - 27 January 2008; Teylers Museum, Haarlem, 9 February - 12 May 2008
The Adam Brothers in Rome: Drawings from the Grand Tour, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 25 September 2008 - 14 February 2009
Piranesi's Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 15 February - 18 May 2013; Tchoban Foundation Museum für Architekturzeichnung, Berlin, 1 June - 31 August 2013; The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, 23 January - 17 May 2015; Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, 19 August 2015 - 6 January 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