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Academic study for the plan of a large public building, possibly a church, with a longitudinal plan: a central octagon with colonnade entered at one end through a projecting five-bay portico, and at the other end through a three-bay opening with side doors and spiral staircases on either side of a large portico (the latter now trimmed off the drawing)
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Reference number
Adam vol.9/14
Purpose
Academic study for the plan of a large public building, possibly a church, with a longitudinal plan: a central octagon with colonnade entered at one end through a projecting five-bay portico, and at the other end through a three-bay opening with side doors and spiral staircases on either side of a large portico (the latter now trimmed off the drawing)
Aspect
Plan
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink on drawing 14
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 - 56.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen225 x 186, bottom of drawing trimmed
Hand
Robert Adam
Watermark
bird on monti within circle
Notes
The hatching technique is similar to that found on the pavilion designs (see Adam vol.9/7, 11, 12) and the complicated church-like composition links it to Adam vol.9/8. This drawing is a larger variation of the sketch plan found in Adam vol.9/15; both can be related to a similar, incomplete plan in Adam vol.55/131 and to the plan in pen in Adam vol.55/126. The composition is in the style of Italian church design of the mid-sixteenth century, with a characteristic mixture of longitudinal and centralised plans that Robert and James Adam were certainly familiar with. There is a version of this drawing by Laurent-Benoít Dewez (1731-1812) in his drawings in the Rijksarchief, Brussels (see Dewez 1/14).
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