388 (a) - AS IV.149 (click to view in Digital Bodleian)
388 (b) - AS IV.149 (verso) (click to view in Digital Bodleian)
388 (a and b) - AS IV.149. This drawing consists of the following:
- (i) on recto: sketches illustrating the death of Archimedes.
- (ii) on verso: six figure studies after Michelangelo's Last Judgement in the Vatican. St Andrew, Christ, and St Peter (above). St Sebastian and two of the male nudes ascending into Heaven (below). Pencil. 312 x 416 mm. Watermark: horn on scrolly shield.
Note to 388: The death of Archimedes is described in Plutarch's Lives. Quite why this obscure subject was of interest to Wren is unclear. The sketches after Michelangelo's Last Judgement were presumably copied from a print. They may relate (indirectly) to Isaac Fuller's depiction of the same subject in All Souls College chapel, executed in 1664 (Downes 1960; Liversidge 1992). This is the only drawing of its kind in the collection, and Wren's authorship cannot be presumed.
389 (a) - AS IV.155 (click to view in Digital Bodleian)
389 (b) - AS IV.155 (verso) (click to view in Digital Bodleian)
389 (a and b) - AS IV.155. Pencil sketches of clasped hands, drawn by Wren on both sides of the sheet. 201 x 315 mm. Watermark: Hat (Heawood 2589).
Note to 389: These sketches should be compared with Wren's (probably unrelated) drawings of hands for a deaf-and-dumb alphabet (Wren 1750/1965, between 194 and 195).