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Unfinished academic studies for the plan and courtyard elevation of a public building. The plan shows the building set around a court with quadrant corners, entered through a concave portico flanked by octagonal rooms, leading to two large symmetrical pavilions with porticoes facing across the court. The elevation shows a pedimented portico of three bays between pilasters; on either side is a door flanked by sculpture niches with thermal windows above.
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Reference number
Adam vol.9/41
Purpose
Unfinished academic studies for the plan and courtyard elevation of a public building. The plan shows the building set around a court with quadrant corners, entered through a concave portico flanked by octagonal rooms, leading to two large symmetrical pavilions with porticoes facing across the court. The elevation shows a pedimented portico of three bays between pilasters; on either side is a door flanked by sculpture niches with thermal windows above.
Aspect
Plan, elevationverso part of diagram
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink on drawing 41verso: Inscribed with eight lines in red chalk in a contemporary hand, beside columns of accounts in scudi in ink: Mr Hervey is infinitely obliged to -/ for his Breakfast, it would however / - deal better, if he had had / sure of the Srora Madre's Company / - it was not so that and - / the most obedient & humble / of Mr Adams who - / disobedient haughty :
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1756
Medium and dimensions
Pen264 x 168
Hand
Robert Adam
Verso
Part of a diagram in red chalk. Christopher Hervey was at Tivoli in April 1756 with Robert Adam and Charles-Louis Clérisseau, who were there 'to view Hadrian's Villa, make drawings and inspect some people I have working there, as I am making an exact plan of it' (see J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.204; for information about Hervey see J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, New Haven and London, 1997, p.489, and Fleming op.cit. p.359).
Notes
The plan appears to be a variation on the scheme shown in Adam vol.9/31. The top pavilion with spiral staircases on either side of a circular hall relates this drawing to Robert Adam's modest exercises in pavilions in Adam vol.9/11, although the scale suggests its inspiration was imperial buildings. The elevation is probably for one of the three courtyard façades, although it matches none closely.
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