↑ Top

Studies for centrally planned houses


Wren_313_ASC_IV_118

313 (a) - AS IV.118    (click to view in Digital Bodleian)

Wren_313_ASC_IV_118_verso

313 (b) - AS IV.118 (verso)    (click to view in Digital Bodleian)

313 (a and b) - AS IV.118. Ground plan of a large house, with related pencil studies drawn on both sides of the sheet. Drawn by Wren, probably in connection with the Arundel House site (see 311–312). Scale not given. Brown ink, drawn freehand over scorer. Pencil. 197 x 306 mm. No watermark.

Note to 313: This remarkable drawing explores related ideas for a centrally planned house:

  1. (i) The main design, drawn freehand in ink, is fifteen bays wide and fifteen bays deep. The projecting wings are reminiscent of Pratt's Clarendon House, while the entrance hall, with its first-floor gallery, derives from the Queen's House at Greenwich. The central hall is overlaid with pencil sketching inspired by Palladio's reconstruction of the tetrastyle hall.
  2. (ii) There are four related elevations sketched in pencil to the L of this plan. These explore a variety of dome and roof types. Two of them include giant orders reminiscent of the preliminary design for Trinity College Library, Cambridge (23–26).
  3. (iii) Related plan studies are sketched in pencil to the R of the main plan, one of which is encircled (compare 314).
  4. (iv) There are a further five plan studies sketched in pencil on the back of the sheet.



Wren_314_ASC_IV_153

314 - AS IV.153    (click to view in Digital Bodleian)

Wren_314_ASC_IV_153_verso

314 - AS IV.153 (verso)    (click to view in Digital Bodleian)

314 - AS IV.153. Pencil studies, related to 313. Drawn by Wren on both sides of the sheet. Pencil and scorer. Ink calculations in the top R corner. 201 x 307 mm. Watermark: pot.

Note to 314: The front of the sheet shows numerous plan studies, one of which is encircled (compare 313), and two sketch elevations, one of which is surmounted by a dome. There are further plan studies on the back of the sheet, together with two more sketch elevations (one of which agrees with the plan encircled on the recto). The designs are profoundly indebted to Palladio's Quattro Libri.