English folly linked to Adam

The Ruin was built as a picturesquely knackered landscape ornament on the brink of a gorge in Hackfall Wood, in Grewelthorpe, near Ripon, now a Grade I listed garden. . .

The romantic gardens were designed by William Aislabie, and the folly was assumed to be his creation. But research for Roman Bob, an exhibition about the work of Robert Adam which has just opened at the Sir John Soane Museum in London, revealed a large watercolour at the V&A.

Capriccio on Ruins, now in the exhibition, shows a Roman fantasy made of elements from different buildings: a central dome based on Hadrian's Baths and two side vaults based on sketches of ruined temples made by Adam when he was in Rome. It was instantly familiar to Colin Briden, the archaeologist researching the history of the Ruin for the trust. The sketch is unmistakably the parent of the folly, which has two faces, one Gothic, one mirroring the Adam painting.

From the Guardian. The article is a bit confused, however, since much of it leaves the impression that the folly was actually designed by Adam -- yet at the end, refers to it as a "plagiarism". So it would seem that this is in fact a work after Adam, which might well leave the traditional Aislabie attribution intact.

Posted by David on July 9, 2003 11:17 AM