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 Double Portrait Medallions, and a Seated Figure

Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778

Design for a Chimneypiece with Double Portrait Medallions, and a Seated Figure

ca. 1764-1767
6 3/8 x 9 5/8 inches (161 x 246 mm)
Pen and brown ink, over black chalk, on paper.
1966.11:62

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

Notes
Drawing is on verso of a fragment of an etching -- a proof before letters -- of plate 13 of the "Antichita ̉d'Albano e di Castel Gandolfo," 1764, f. 523.
This chimneypiece design includes medallions, a caduceus, and -- as indicated by Piranesi's inscription in the corner -- a fiacola, or torch. Although related to Piranesi's Diverse Maniere, this design does not appear in the plates of that publication. The figure is unrelated to the chimneypiece; it is one of Piranesi's many quick sketches of people seen in the studio, probably just drawn in a blank space on the page, and not intended to be seen as a figure sitting inside the fireplace.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at left, in pen and brown ink, "fiacole".
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. 62, repr.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department