Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Academic study for two unfinished plans for buildings. One is octagonal with a double ring of columns alternating with square piers in the centre, and niches in the wall behind. The other plan has a circular columned court with a small Greek Cross pavilion in the centre, approached through a portico with steps. In the bottom right corner is a sketch for a horse's head.
Browse
Reference number
Adam vol.9/32
Purpose
Academic study for two unfinished plans for buildings. One is octagonal with a double ring of columns alternating with square piers in the centre, and niches in the wall behind. The other plan has a circular columned court with a small Greek Cross pavilion in the centre, approached through a portico with steps. In the bottom right corner is a sketch for a horse's head.
Aspect
Plan, detailverso perspective, details
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink on drawing 32verso inscribed in chalk in a contemporary hand, part of 10 lines of a list of payments in columns To Salle / To Lazaro / Left / To Do Hou / Saturday 16 / To Rus / after / To Spar / the / Alt /.
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 - 56.
Medium and dimensions
Pen204 x 223, vertical foldline
Hand
Robert Adam
Verso
Capriccio in grey wash and pen showing a ruined, barrel-vaulted hall with niches beside a square tower in a wooded setting. Below this: two elaborately carved funerary urns, one oval and one square, each with four short legs; also, at far left, a small detail of cornice and frieze. The mausoleum theme on the recto - San Costanza was the Mausoleum of Constantina - perhaps explains the drawing of funerary urns, of which there are other exercises in Adam vol.9/42 and 55/117. The capriccio is similar in subject and style to that in Adam vol.9/30. The inscription is probably in Robert Adam's hand and refers to activities on a 'Saturday 16'.
Watermark
names
Notes
The plan of the octagonal pavilion was possible derived from the Baptistery at San Giovanni Laterano in Rome, Italy or, for the coupled columns, from San Costanza in Rome or San Vitale at Ravenna. Giorgio Vasari the Younger provided a rich collection of these forms in his Piante di Chiese of 1598; in the Roman section of Adam volume 57 there are views of Santa Costanza (see Adam vol.57/ ). The plan of the circular building has a similar antique source in the Maritime Theatre at Tivoli, Italy or in classical mausoleum plans. The mausoleum theme - San Costanza was the Mausoleum of Constantina - perhaps explains the drawing on the verso of funerary urns.
Literature
verso rep. J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, pl.42.
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