NOTES: This sketch is one of a number of preliminary studies of English Baroque architecture made by Charles Cockerell in preparation for his watercolour composition 'A Tribute to Sir Christopher Wren' (1838). It was formerly part of an album of drawings entitled 'Ichnographia Publica', compiled by Cockerell from 1825 as a private 'scrapbook' containing his measured drawings, notes and studies relating to the architecture of public buildings. The bracketed numbers which accompany many of the sketches refer to the numbered 'key' to the engraved version of 'A Tribute to Sir Christopher Wren'.
NOTES: This drawing is by or after Giovanni Carlo Galli Bibiena and is one of eight designs for scenes for the opera 'La Clemenza di Tito' (libretto by Metastasio, music by Antonio Mazzoni) which was performed in the new opera house at Lisbon in 1755 on the birthday of Joseph I, King of Portugal. In 1752 Galli Bibiena had been summoned to Lisbon by the king to design the opera house, which adjoined the royal palace. Just seven months after its completion however, the theatre was destroyed by the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755. The drawing shown here relates to a set of engravings and may have been copied from the prints themselves.