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Record drawing of the vestibule at the base of the Scala Regia
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Reference number
SM volume 61/28
Purpose
Record drawing of the vestibule at the base of the Scala Regia
Aspect
Interior perspective looking towards the Royal Entrance with staffage (soldiers)
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, sepia, green, yellow, red and blue washes with raw umber wash border on wove paper (363 x 255), pasted into volume 61
Notes
The presentation drawings of the new interiors at the House of Lords in volume 61 are arranged in the same way that they would have been encountered on the processional route itself (except for SM volume 61/36), and therefore form a 'virtual', almost cinematic, processional route from the Royal Entrance via the Scala Regia to the Royal Gallery and then into the King's Robing Room.
Having alighted from his carriage under the porte-cochère, the King proceeds into the curved, Gothic Royal Entrance, through a small 'transitional' vestibule, and into the vesitbule at the bottom of the grand flight of stairs known as the 'Scala Regia' which is shown in this view. The vestibule has a groined 'starfish' ceiling with rosette and banded rustication on the lower part of the walls, with recessed arches adorned with ball mouldings and floral bosses framing the royal coat of arms and a bust of George IV. The overdoor cornice incorporates feathers as a reference to the Prince of Wales. The roundels allegorising the rise and fall of Rome survived the fire of 1834 and remain at the Palace of Westminster (S. Sawyer, 'The processional route', in M. Richardson and M. Stevens (eds), Sir John Soane, Architect: Master of Space and Light, 1999, p. 263).
Having alighted from his carriage under the porte-cochère, the King proceeds into the curved, Gothic Royal Entrance, through a small 'transitional' vestibule, and into the vesitbule at the bottom of the grand flight of stairs known as the 'Scala Regia' which is shown in this view. The vestibule has a groined 'starfish' ceiling with rosette and banded rustication on the lower part of the walls, with recessed arches adorned with ball mouldings and floral bosses framing the royal coat of arms and a bust of George IV. The overdoor cornice incorporates feathers as a reference to the Prince of Wales. The roundels allegorising the rise and fall of Rome survived the fire of 1834 and remain at the Palace of Westminster (S. Sawyer, 'The processional route', in M. Richardson and M. Stevens (eds), Sir John Soane, Architect: Master of Space and Light, 1999, p. 263).
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 11 September - 3 December 1999; Centro Palladio, Vicenza, April - August 2000; Hôtel de Rohan, Paris, January - April 2001; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, 16 May - 3 September 2001; Real Academia des Bellas Artes, Madrid, October - December 2001
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