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Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778
Design for a Chimneypiece with Head of Medusa and Figure of Bacchus
ca. 1764-1769
Pen and brown iron-gall ink, over red chalk, on paper.
5 7/8 x 7 1/8 inches (150 x 182 mm)
Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.
1966.11:81
Notes:
On same mat as 1966.11:80.
Inscription:
Inscribed at right, in red chalk, "medusa / fra le due"; at left and below, in pen and brown ink "nastro // [f]iacole // fiacole // baco [Bacco] che tien / canestra cogliendo l'uva".
Provenance:
Mrs. J. P. Morgan, New York; by descent to her sons Junius S. Morgan, Princeton and Paris (no mark, see Lugt 1536) and Henry S. Morgan, New York.
Associated names:
Morgan, Jane Norton, 1868-1925, former owner.
Morgan, Junius Spencer, 1892-1960, former owner.
Morgan, Henry S. (Henry Sturgis), 1900-1982, former owner.
Bibliography:
Stampfle, Felice. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Dover, 1978, no. 81, repr.
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