Measured drawings made with Thomas Hardwick (4)

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Soane's architectural education: Royal Academy and Italy including measured drawings: 1770-1780
  - Soane in Italy: measured drawings made or copied, 1778-80
    - Italy: Rome: Villa Madama, c. May-June 1778 (4)

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Reference number

SM 45/2/16, 45/2/17, 45/2/18, 45/2/19

Purpose

Measured drawings made with Thomas Hardwick (4)

Aspect

1 Plan of Villa and garden titled LA PIANTA DELLA VILLA MADAMA
2 Side elevation of Villa and terrace garden titled LA VILLA MADAMA VICINO A ROMA
3 Section on axis of entry4 Longitudinal section through east loggia looking west titled LO SPACCATO DELLA LOGGIA NELLA VILLA MADAMA

Scale

bar scale of English feet (1-3) 1/11in to 1ft, (4) 3/11in to 1ft. An unusual scale but found, for instance, in two of George Dance the Elder's drawings.

Inscribed

as above and (1-3) dimensions given

Medium and dimensions

(1) Pen and sepia wash, pencil, partly pricked for transfer(2)pen, raw umber, sepia and light green washes, pencil, shaded (3,4)pen and sepia wash, pencil, shaded; (1-4) within double ruled border on laid paper (722 x 532, 530 x 721, 530 x 724, 534 x 721)

Hand

Soane

Watermark

J Honig & Zoonen with fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche with bell below, and JH

Notes

Another example of Soane's collaboration with Thomas Hardwick in the shared task of measuring a building. An almost identical plan dated '1778' on paper with the same watermark but fewer measurements was drawn by Hardwick and is in the RIBA Drawings Collection (SB57/8). Soane's enjoyment of the building is evident in the atmospheric washes and shadows added to the drawings and also in the amount of detail he conveys.

The Villa Madama, intended for entertainment rather then habitation, was sited on the lowest slopes of Monte Mario on the outskirts of Rome. Built for Cardinal Giulio de Medici, later Pope Clement VII, from 1518 on a plan devised by Raphael (1483-1520), the work was continued by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. The Loggia was decorated with stucco reliefs by Giovanni da Udine and paintings by Giulio Romano, 1520-5. Though never completed, the Villa Madama with its Loggia and garden was profoundly influential. Now used by the Italian government and rarely open to the public.Professor du Prey noted (January/February 2009) that he had checked out Soane's measurements and found them very accurate.

Literature

P.du Prey, John Soane's architectural education 1753-80, 1977, pp.116-7; P.du Prey, (J.Lever editor), Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, volume G-K, 1973, p.93^2-3

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

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).