Attributed to Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778
Prison Interior with Figures Mounting a Stairway
ca. 1747-50
8 7/16 x 5 15/16 inches (215 x 152 mm)
Pen and brown ink and gray wash, red chalk and red chalk wash, over brown ink on paper.
1966.11:15
Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.
Notes
This drawing is in the mixed technique of red chalk and brown wash that Piranesi used in the late 1740s, but its attribution to Piranesi himself is questionable; it may be the work of an assistant emulating the master's drawings.
Inscriptions/Markings
Watermark: Complex shield, surrounded by double chain and religious emblems, fragment, star, knight on horse, lamp, beaded chain. Arms of Spain or Kingdom of the Two Sicilies watermark (akin to Churchill 1935, no. 262). See 1966.11:101 for a related mark.
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.
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. 15, repr.
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