Giovanni Battista Piranesi

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 mantelpiece designs. The mantelpiece 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.