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    Return to "Beaumont" is linked to these Works 52 items
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    Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 25(v) and 26(r)

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    Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 25(v) and 26(r)
    Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 25(v) and 26(r)
    Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 25(v) and 26(r)
    Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 25(v) and 26(r)
    Date
    1754
    Medium
    Black chalk heightened with white on medium, rough, blued white wove paper, bound in vellum
    Dimensions
    Metric: 281 x 210 mm (each sheet)
    Imperial: 11 1/16 x 8 1/4 in. (each sheet)
    Collection
    Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven. To license images click here
    Accession Number
    B1977.14.359 v25 & r26
    Wilson Online Reference
    D280/25
    Description
    A circular altar dedicated to Hercules, decorated in relief with clubs, their handles connected with wreaths of oak and tied with ribbons. Below to the left is a scene of Hercules, carrying a club in his left hand and leading Cerberus; to the right is a two-handled cup adorned with vine leaves.
    Provenance
    Oldfield Bowles; given to Sir George Beaumont, 1784; thence by descent until 1963, when sold to Paul Mellon
    Signature/inscription
    26(r): Inscribed in black chalk:
    [1] Upper right: in ye Capitol.
    [2] On plinth: HERCULES
    Subject
    Clements identified this study as of a circular altar, made of Pentelic marble in the Museo Capitolino, Rome. The foot and cornice are modern. It is decorated in relief with four clubs, connected with wreaths of oak and tied with ribbons. Figures or objects appear in the fields below, of which two are illustrated. A lengthy inscription declares that it was dedicated to Hercules Victor by C. Ulpius Fronto during the consulship of L. Vettius Paullo and T. Junius Montanus.
    Critical commentary
    During the 18th century the altar stood in the Galleria of the Capitoline Museum, serving as the base for a seated male statue, where Wilson must have drawn it.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    Object ID: 6363
    Bibliography
    Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 1, pp. 24-25; vol. 2, p. 46
    More Information
    Only two sketchbooks by Wilson have survived - the present one (D280-D280/33) and D53-D53/81 Studies and Designs by R. Wilson done in Rome in the Year MDCCLII, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (E.3586-1922).

    Biographies

    • Paul Mellon (1907-1999)
    • Oldfield Bowles (1739-1810)
    • Sir George Beaumont (1753-1827)

    Documents

    • Denys Sutton & Ann Clements, An Italian Sketchbook by Richard Wilson, RA: Drawings made by the Artist in Rome and its Environs in the Year 1754
    This drawing is part of the "Italian Sketchbook Drawings Yale Center for British Art 1754" sketchbook
    View sketchbook pages
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