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Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778
Design for Chimneypiece with Wreaths and Volutes
ca. 1765-1769
Pen and brown ink, over red chalk, on paper.
5 13/16 x 5 1/16 inches (147 x 128 mm)
Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.
1966.11:88
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Notes:
This drawing seems to have begun as the careful study in lighter brown ink, with Piranesi's later edits added in the darker ink.
Drawing is on verso of a fragment of a letter with notes on the architectural elements of a church; see Stampfle catalogue entry cited below for full transcription.
On same mat as 1966.11:87; 90; 91.
Inscription:
Numbered at upper right, in graphite, "90".
Watermark: Bird on three mounts inside circle, over letter "M", fragment.
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.
Watermark:
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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. 88, repr.
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