Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C , Case 92, Shelf D, Box 60

Design

1710-1717 (Made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Recto: Altar of S. Joseph; details of S. Wenceslao altar and chandeliers Basilica of S. Pietro, Rome.
Verso: Details of floor and furniture of a chapel with Chigi coat of arms, Basilica of S. Pietro, Rome.
The drawing was part of the collection assembled by John Talman (1677-1726). Talman was the son of the celebrated architect William Talman. From about 1698 he was employed by his father to help assemble material for his extensive collection of architectural drawings, prints and books. A keen traveller, he went to the Continent twice in search of acquisitions. He visited the northern Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy, and he made numerous watercolour copies of altarpieces and churches in Rome.

Talman was back in England in 1715. He was a founder-member of the Tavern Society, London, which later became the Society of Antiquaries, and he was appointed its first director. Like his father, Talman believed in the elevating purpose of art and in the use of art collections for the public good. Although his will indicates that he had wanted his vast collection (which contained over 32,000 prints and drawings), to go to Trinity College, Cambridge, he later changed his mind and instructed that it should be sold for the benefit of his children. A portion of the collection was nonetheless given outright to the Society of Antiquaries, who acquired further items from the auction in London on 19 April 1727.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
ink on paper
Brief description
Drawing from an album by John Talman (1677-1726) and other artists; Antiquities and Architectural Details, volume III
Physical description
Recto: Altar of S. Joseph; details of S. Wenceslao altar and chandeliers Basilica of S. Pietro, Rome.
Verso: Details of floor and furniture of a chapel with Chigi coat of arms, Basilica of S. Pietro, Rome.
Dimensions
  • Approx. height: 402mm
  • Approx. length: 266mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'colonna/ grande / a So Wnceslao' (Recto)
  • Indication of measurements and materials (Recto and verso.)
  • 'R. P. Storami alla noziata' (Verso)
Historical context
The drawing was probably realised during one of Talman trips to Rome (1710-1717).
The volume is inscribed in ink on a sheet fixed inside the volume's front cover :' 3d Night Lot 1. A portfolio with about 300 drawings of churches & c. in Italy by Mr. Tahlman' and with a cancelled inscription ' 25 different designs by Mr. Hauksmoor No.27'.
In the catalogue of sale of George Vertue's collection, Lot 1 on the third nigh of the sale (Friday, 18 March 1757) is described in terms almost identical with inscription inside the front cover of this volume including the spelling Tahlman and two sheets (E.145, 146- 1940) consist of notes in Vertue's hand. it is therefore a reasonable supposition that the drawings in this volume, and those which resemble them in the other group of drawings nos. E 187-359- 1940, were once in his collection. It is also fo interest, in view of the cancelled inscription, that Lot 3 on the third night of sale consisted in 'Plants and designs in architecture' by Hawksmoor.
Summary
Recto: Altar of S. Joseph; details of S. Wenceslao altar and chandeliers Basilica of S. Pietro, Rome.
Verso: Details of floor and furniture of a chapel with Chigi coat of arms, Basilica of S. Pietro, Rome.
The drawing was part of the collection assembled by John Talman (1677-1726). Talman was the son of the celebrated architect William Talman. From about 1698 he was employed by his father to help assemble material for his extensive collection of architectural drawings, prints and books. A keen traveller, he went to the Continent twice in search of acquisitions. He visited the northern Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy, and he made numerous watercolour copies of altarpieces and churches in Rome.

Talman was back in England in 1715. He was a founder-member of the Tavern Society, London, which later became the Society of Antiquaries, and he was appointed its first director. Like his father, Talman believed in the elevating purpose of art and in the use of art collections for the public good. Although his will indicates that he had wanted his vast collection (which contained over 32,000 prints and drawings), to go to Trinity College, Cambridge, he later changed his mind and instructed that it should be sold for the benefit of his children. A portion of the collection was nonetheless given outright to the Society of Antiquaries, who acquired further items from the auction in London on 19 April 1727.
Bibliographic reference
See Universita' di Pisa project: "John Talman an early Eighteen Century collector of drawings".
Collection
Accession number
E.85-1940

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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