Study for the canopy of the Bishop’s Throne, developed from sketches on WRE/4/2/1. Reverse: study for a timber door enclosure to a corner staircase or entrance

WRE/4/2/2

c.1693–94

Sir Christopher (1632–1723) Wren, Nicholas (c.1662–1736) Hawksmoor

Pen and brown ink over pencil with grey wash and additions in pencil. Thin laid paper, originally a single sheet, but cut horizontally in the centre, then rejoined and secured with a contemporary paper strip, probably in Wren’s office; contemporary loss in upper centre (6.6 x 4.8 cm), where the finial ornament was cut out. 43.9 x 35.4 cm. No visible watermark or countermark.

A part-elevation with two sketch plans, developed from WRE/4/2/1, for a canopy with an attenuated lower stage set against a taller gallery front. Drawn by Hawksmoor. Datable c.1693-94. Implied scale, c.1 ft to 1 inch. The lower part of the canopy has been elongated with tapering, cherub-head consoles that spring from the foliage scrolls of swan-neck half-pediments and carry a circular, openwork canopy hung with a lambrequin border decorated with cherub heads. Above are s-shaped caryatid scrolls supporting a finial, cut out from the drawing but perhaps intended as a bishop’s mitre. Hawksmoor extended the foliage scrolls of the half-pediment across the stall front in pencil over a faintly drawn segmental pediment and drew a parted drapery motif as an alternative to the lambrequin valence. The executed canopy has a segmental front pediment dressed with thick, scrolling palm fronds and an openwork circular upper feature which rises vertically from the gallery front without a projecting valence. In this design, the canopy stands above an enlarged gallery front, now 3 ft high instead of 2 ft 3 inches in the earlier designs. It was built 2 ft 9 inches high. Lightly drawn in pencil on its front are long s-shaped scrolls that prefigure the scroll-like wings and cherub heads that were carved on the gallery fronts by Grinling Gibbons in 1695-97. Sketched in pencil on the right is the circular plan of the canopy with consoles on the diagonals of the circle. Below is the pencilled plan of the columnar supports at half scale. The scale of the main drawing can be deduced from the pencil-sketched arcade pilaster behind the canopy (4 inches wide). Remarkably fluent in its ink, wash and pencil sketching, the drawing demonstrates Hawksmoor growing confidence in decorative composition during design-work on the choir stalls in 1693-94. Reverse: Drawn in reverse sense to the front sketch is a study in pen and ink for a three-stage entrance feature set against the internal angle of a chamber, probably an entrance to a corner staircase. Implied scale, about 2 ft to 1 inch. Set against a wall angle with a splay 2 ft wide, it is in three diminishing stages each topped by a coved cornice. The lowest stage has a curve-headed door surmounted by a cartouche on a drapery swag with a crown over it. If scaled at 2 ft to 1 inch, the step would be 4-5 inches high and the door 4 ft 6 inches wide. No wall angle within the completed cathedral has a splay 2 ft wide. It may be a proposal for a door in the angle of a church tower. A scale bar drawn vertically along the lower left edge of the sheet of 4 ft to 1 inch is probably unrelated to the design. On the right edge is a pencil sketch in perspective of the lugged door architrave and scroll-ended frieze of the side doors in the choir aisle screens; see WRE/4/1/15 and 16. Along the bottom edge is a pencilled elevation of the same door architrave showing the lug projecting upwards, with the scroll-end to the right and a shallow cornice above.

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.

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WRE/4/1/15, WRE/4/1/16, WRE/4/1/9, WRE/4/1/12, WRE/5/2/3