Measured drawings of details of the ground floor order of the portico of the Basilica at Vicenza by leading architect Sir William Chambers (1723-1796). It is made up of three small sheets recently re-united; this is only part of what was a much larger sheet. The largest drawing shows an elevation of the frieze. There are also drawings of an impost, the decoration on the soffit, the column bases of both the great and small orders, and details of a patera and a bucranium.

Chambers was born in Sweden and died in London. He travelled widely, visiting China, and studied architecture at the Ecole des Arts, Paris, from 1749 and in Italy from 1750 to 1755. Many of his drawings from this period are contained in his important 'Franco-Italian' album, held in the V&A. Chambers moved to London in 1755 and published his influential Treatise on Civil Architecture in 1759. Chambers demonstrated the breadth of his style in buildings such as Gower (later Carrington) House and Melbourne House, London, in such country houses as Duddingston, Scotland, and in the garden architecture he designed for Wilton House, Wiltshire, and at Kew Gardens. He became head of government building in 1782, and in this capacity built Somerset House, London.