Workshop of Giovanni Battista Piranesi

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Workshop of Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778
Frieze Motif of Winged Head Supported by Seated Putto
ca. 1775-1780
Pen and brown ink, over black chalk, on paper; framing line in pen and brown ink.
2 15/16 x 9 1/4 inches (75 x 235 mm)
Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.
1966.11:36
Notes: 

Traditionally attributed to Giovanni Battista Piranesi, this drawing must be instead by a member of his workshop. Mario Bevilacqua has suggested an attribution to Giovanni Battista's son Angelo Piranesi, by comparison with Angelo's signed drawing in the Album Amicorum of Aernout Vosmaer.

Inscription: 

Numbered at lower left, in graphite, "65".

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. 36, repr.

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