Drawing Room in Pompeian Style for the Ambassador’s Residence, Porta Pia, Rome

Basil Spence (1907 - 1976)

Pen and ink and wash, on paper

1971

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© Gillian & Anthony Blee

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Image of Drawing Room in Pompeian Style for the Ambassador’s Residence, Porta Pia, Rome
  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Italy
    City: Rome
    Place: British Embassy

    In 1959 British architect Sir Basil Spence was commissioned to design a new British Embassy building as well as 14 staff flats on the site of the former building at Porta Pia. During an interview with ‘The Daily Mail’ in 1963, the architect said ‘I have as a neighbour on this site a building by Michelangelo setting an embarrassingly high standard for any architect to meet’. Spence created an Embassy with a square plan, built around a central courtyard and raised on pillars, which was opened in 1971. He also designed a Chancery building (office building), although this was never realised, and began work on designs for a new Ambassador’s Residence. This drawing is for a Pompeian style drawing room for Spence’s proposed new Residence. However, this project was also not carried out and instead Villa Wolkonsky continues to serve as the Ambassador’s Residence.

  • Explore
    Places
    Italy, Rome
    Subjects
    painting (as Subject), topography, mirror, diplomat, ceiling, domestic interior, armchair, chair, table (as Subject), drawing room/sitting room
    Materials & Techniques
    paper (as artists material), ink, wash drawing, pen and ink drawing, wash
  • Details
    Artist
    Basil Spence (1907 - 1976)
    Title
    Drawing Room in Pompeian Style for the Ambassador’s Residence, Porta Pia, Rome
    Date
    1971
    Medium
    Pen and ink and wash, on paper
    Dimensions
    height: 25.00 cm, width: 32.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Origin uncertain, c.1971-1972
    Inscription
    lr: B.S. March 1971
    GAC number
    10444