John Frederick Lewis and the Royal Scottish Academy II: Italy, the Netherlands and France

technique of this drawing ? the deHcate appHcation of wash ? cor responds exacdy to the British Museum's sheet. The second known drawing is a landscape in red chalk inscribed 'de villanueva'.16 The function of Villanueva's drawings might explain why so few have survived. Orellana refers to the many architects who carried out their work based on his drawings, which were subsequendy altered by 'others less educated'.17 The drawings to which Orellana was referring were no doubt architectural, and destroyed in the process of reaHsing a design. The British Museum's drawing, how ever, was not produced as a stage in the preparation or development of a work in another medium, but to show how the painting would ultimately appear.18 The careful lettering in the upper section, the clearly resolved composition, its equivalence to the surviving painted section and the detaiHng of the frame all recommend the design as an agreed solution to what must have been Villanueva's most important commission towards the end of his career.