Giovanni Battista Piranesi

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1720-1778

Fountain with Upper Basin Topped by a Pine Cone Supported by Sphinxes, Dolphin Spouts Emptying into Lower Basin. Verso: fragmentary sketch of ornament

ca. 1765

Black chalk on paper; verso: red chalk.

9 3/4 x 5 5/16 inches (248 x 136 mm)

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

1966.11:112

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Notes:

Carlo Gasparri ("Una fontana ritrovata. Ancora su Piranesi a Villa Albani," 1996) identifies this drawing as the plan for a fountain realized in the garden of the Villa Albani, which was later disassembled, with the various elements reused elsewere at the villa.

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. 112, repr.

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Piranesi, Giovanni Battista

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