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.

Ruins of Pozzuoli

Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778

Ruins of Pozzuoli

ca. 1776-1777
19 5/16 x 30 inches (490 x 760 mm)
Pen and black-brown ink, over black chalk, on cream laid paper.
1961.1

Purchased as the gift of the Fellows.

Notes
Watermark: bear inside circle over "RUS". Watermark, beta radiograph. Bear, circle, "RUS". 142481wm_1961_1_WM_beta.jpg
In the 1750s, excavations in a vineyard near Pozzuoli unearthed the remains of the macellum, or marketplace, of the ancient town of Puteoli, which had been a major trading port in antiquity. A statue discovered at the site led to the mistaken notion that it had been a temple dedicated to the Egyptian god Serapis; this undoubtedly would have piqued Piranesi's interest, given his fascination with Egyptian design. Nonetheless, as the nature of the remains was not clearly understood, Piranesi treated the scene more like a view of evocative ruins--akin to the scenographic fantasies of his youth--than a site of archaeological study.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at lower left, in a cartouche, in pen and gray ink, "P"; fragment of similar inscription on verso.
Associated names
Redford, William, 1913-2004, former owner.
Calmann, Hans M., 1899-1982, former owner.
Hewett, Kenneth John, 1919-1994, former owner.
Ortiz, George, former owner.
Klejman, John Jacob, 1906-1995, former owner.
Bibliography
Adams, Frederick B., Jr., comp. Eleventh Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1961. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1961, p. 93-95.
Pierpont Morgan Library. Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969, p. 160.
Denison, Cara, Myra Nan Rosenfeld, and Stephanie Wiles. Exploring Rome : Piranesi and His Contemporaries. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library; Montréal : Centre Canadien d'Architecture, 1993, no. 46, repr.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department