Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Download image: 
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778
Study for Proposed Alteration of San Giovanni in Laterano, with Forechoir and Expanded Choir Aedicule, and a Sketch of Putti. Verso: Sketch for pedimented niche of choir wall and part of a ground plan
ca. 1763-1764
Pen and brown ink, with gray wash, over graphite, on paper; verso: graphite.
13 11/16 x 10 1/4 inches (349 x 260 mm)
Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.
1966.11:58

Download verso image: 
Notes: 

This quick sketch is a refinement of a scheme first developed in 1966.11:57. In that drawing, a square panel appears above the aedicule of the choir wall, but that is eliminated here. The scheme is also represented by the Tavola Quinta among the finished presentation drawings now at Columbia University's Avery Library.
The putti, drawn with the paper turned 180 degrees, do not relate to any of the Lateran design schemes seen in the Morgan drawings, but they likely correspond to the angels with garlands and banderoles found in a number of related drawings at Columbia University's Avery Library; see also a related sketch of putti at the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, inv. IX 5159-36-2-4. Another drawing at the Morgan, inv. 1966.11:110, was once joined to this sheet.

Inscription: 

Numbered at lower edge, in graphite, "53".
Watermark: Fleur-de-lis inside double circle, monogram "CB" above, centered on chain line.

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.
Watermark: 
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. 58, repr.

School: 
Century: 
Classification: 
Department: