Study for an aisle window, with alternative corbels

WRE/2/3/2

1675

Pen and brown ink over pencil under-drawing and incised lines, with ruled pencil border. Cut out from larger sheet. 22.2 x 13.7 cm. Watermark: Strasbourg lily (crown only, rest cut off)

An early design for the aisle window, drawn by Wren. It was cut out later from a larger sheet and given a ruled pencil border. Datable 1675 (pre-construction). Implied scale, just over 4 ft to 1 inch. Wren drew alternatives for the corbels below the moulded sill, the left one treated as a scrolled cartouche and the right one dressed with a lion's head over a Doric triglyph. The motifs can be traced to Inigo Jones’s recasing of the pre-Fire cathedral in 1633-42, some of which was still standing in 1675. The north nave door had a pediment carried on similar triglyph-corbels, while the main eaves around the nave, transept and west end had a frieze of lions’ heads alternating with acanthus drops. The right corbel sets a lion’s head on a triglyph. In the executed version Wren substituted three acanthus drops; see WRE/2/3/5. He also modified the key-block of the arch and the mouldings around the architrave.

Access to the Wren office drawings held at London Metropolitan Archives is available only with advance notice and at the discretion of the Heritage Services Director, London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB.

item