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Roman fresco from the Villa Negroni
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Angelo Campanella (1746 - 1811), engraver
After Anton Raphael Mengs
Camillo Buti (fl. late 18th century), publisher
After Anton Raphael Mengs
Camillo Buti (fl. late 18th century), publisher
Roman fresco from the Villa Negroni
1778
Engraving, hand coloured with gouache
Museum number: P158
On display: Breakfast Room
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
Wall decoration showing Venus and a female companion in a landscape accompanied by two bathing putti; plate 3 of the series, dated 1778.
Soane displayed a complete series of these plates in the Breakfast Room, all with the printed inscriptions trimmed off prior to framing. The series consists of eight plates, each showing a different wall of the so-called Villa Negroni, which was excavated in Rome near the Baths of Diocletian in July 1777. The series was engraved by Angelo Campanella after drawings by Anton Raphael Mengs and Anton von Maron. The excavation was in progress when Soane was in Rome between 1778 and 1780. A view of the work in progress drawn by Thomas Jones (1742-1803) is in the Tate collection (TO3544). Jones visited the excavations in July 1777, a month after they began and described the frescoes being revealed in this ancient domestic dwelling as 'painted Ornaments much in the Chinese taste'. He visited with his friend Henry Tresham, who subsequently purchased the frescoes for the Earl of Bristol, Frederick Hervey, Soane's own early patron in Rome. For more detailed information on the frescos, see: Hetty Joyce, 'The Ancient Frescoes from the Villa Negroni and their Influence in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', The Art Bulletin (1983): LXV,3, pp.423-440; for more information on this project, see: Steffi Roettgen (ed): 'Anton Raphael Mengs and his British Patrons', Exhibition catalogue, Kenwood House, 1993, pp.144-7. Soane owned a second impression of the series which is in Drawer 84. Set 1.
Soane displayed a complete series of these plates in the Breakfast Room, all with the printed inscriptions trimmed off prior to framing. The series consists of eight plates, each showing a different wall of the so-called Villa Negroni, which was excavated in Rome near the Baths of Diocletian in July 1777. The series was engraved by Angelo Campanella after drawings by Anton Raphael Mengs and Anton von Maron. The excavation was in progress when Soane was in Rome between 1778 and 1780. A view of the work in progress drawn by Thomas Jones (1742-1803) is in the Tate collection (TO3544). Jones visited the excavations in July 1777, a month after they began and described the frescoes being revealed in this ancient domestic dwelling as 'painted Ornaments much in the Chinese taste'. He visited with his friend Henry Tresham, who subsequently purchased the frescoes for the Earl of Bristol, Frederick Hervey, Soane's own early patron in Rome. For more detailed information on the frescos, see: Hetty Joyce, 'The Ancient Frescoes from the Villa Negroni and their Influence in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', The Art Bulletin (1983): LXV,3, pp.423-440; for more information on this project, see: Steffi Roettgen (ed): 'Anton Raphael Mengs and his British Patrons', Exhibition catalogue, Kenwood House, 1993, pp.144-7. Soane owned a second impression of the series which is in Drawer 84. Set 1.
Associated items
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