Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Piranesi is said to have designed apartments for Clement XIII at the Quirinal Palace and Castel Gandolfo, for Giambattista Rezzonico at the Quirinal, and for Abbondio Rezzonico in the Palazzo del Senato on the Capitoline Hill. Nothing of these rooms is thought to survive, though the present sketch is probably a design for a ceiling in one of them, most likely Abbondio Rezzonico's apartment on the third floor of the Palazzo del Senato, where work was carried out in 1767. This drawing was long identified just as a "Sketch for a Decorative Panel" because the inscription at one edge of the sheet has been read as "Pa.mi R 4 1/4" (4 1/4 Roman Palms), about 36 inches or 94 centimeters. Yet, the irregular shape and the openings indicated at the corners seem to suggest it is a ceiling design. One alternate reading of the inscription is as "Pa.mi 124 1/4" (124 1/4 palms, about 91 feet or 28 meters), which seems impossibly large for a room in a Roman palace, but perhaps it is simply a strangely written "Pa.mi R 40 1/4" (40 1/4 Roman Palms, about 29 1/2 feet or 9 meters), which would make sense for a room's dimensions. It is alternately possible that the dimensions relate to a different drawing that was once beyond the current edge of the sheet, for the inscription is upside down with regard to the drawing.