Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Design for a Chimneypiece with Elephant Heads, and a Sketch for a Pilaster with a Lion Head

Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778

Design for a Chimneypiece with Elephant Heads, and a Sketch for a Pilaster with a Lion Head

ca. 1764-1767
8 3/8 x 12 11/16 inches (213 x 322 mm)
Pen and brown ink, over black chalk, on paper.
1966.11:61

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

Notes
Drawing is on fragment of an etching by Giovanni Ottaviani (ca. 1735-1808) after Guercino (1591-1666).
While some of the Morgan's drawings relate to the published plates of the Diverse maniere, others represent further ideas and variations for chimneypiece designs. The chimneypiece was a modern architectural form, but it was also something of a blank canvas to which Piranesi could apply his ideas for ornament drawn from nature and from Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman sources. This example, making use of elephant and lion heads, is one of several designs that highlight natural forms.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at lower right, in pen and brown ink, "rotta de c... / carioni(?)".
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.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department