Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Zoom image

Download image:

142377v_0001.jpg

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

1720-1778

Design for a Chimneypiece with Reliefs, Garlands, Bucrania, and Standing Figures of Minerva

ca. 1769-1771

Pen and gray-brown ink, over black chalk, on paper.

9 11/16 x 13 3/8 inches (246 x 340 mm)

Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.

1966.11:85

Notes:

William Rieder (1975) notes the similarity of this design to that of the chimneypiece by Piranesi now at Gorhambury, which was commissioned by Edward Walter, who was in Rome from 1769-71. See also the related designs, 1966.11:73, 1966.11:74, 1966.11:75, 1966.11:77, and 1966.11:83. This drawing seems to be a clean copy of another sketch, most likely by a member of Piranesi's workshop rather than Piranesi himself.

Inscription:

Numbered at right, in black chalk, "8 1/2 // 11 1/2", each encircled; numbered at lower right, in graphite, "98".

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. 85, repr.

Catalog link:

See more information »

Artist page:

Piranesi, Giovanni Battista

School:

Century:

Classification:

Department: