Circle of Giovanni Battista Piranesi

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Circle of Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778
"Cult of Ibis" Egyptian Vase, after Johann Fischer von Ehrlach
Pen and gray ink, with gray wash, on paper; framing line in pen and brown ink.
8 5/16 x 4 13/16 inches (211 x 122 mm)
Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.
1966.11:124
Notes: 

This drawing is a copy of plate 3 from the suite of Antique and Egyptian Vases in Johann Fischer von Ehrlach's Entwurf einer Historischen Architektur of 1721. Although the drawing cannot be by Piranesi himself, the sheet came to the Morgan,with the large group of drawings that descend from Piranesi's workshop, so it is presumably a copy made by one of Piranesi's assistants. See also 1966.11:125, another copy from Fischer's suite of vases. The vase also appears at the bottom of Piranesi's own sheet of studies after Fischer, 1966.11:17.
On same mat as 1966.11:125.

Inscription: 

Numbered at lower right, in graphite, "40".

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. 125, repr.

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