Giovanni Battista Piranesi

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1720-1778

Roman Theater Mask

1777-1778

Pen and brown ink on paper.

4 1/4 x 3 1/8 inches (107 x 79 mm)

Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.

1966.11:45

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Inscription:

Numbered at lower left, in graphite, "71".

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.

Bibliography:

Stampfle, Felice. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Dover, 1978, no. 45, repr.

Notes:

On same mat as 1966.11:44.
Together with 1966.11:43 and 44, these studies, drawn in Piranesi's late style, also date from his time in Pompeii near the end of his life. The masks are details from the tomb of the Istacidi family, located outside the city's Herculaneum Gate. Some are shown in situ in another of Piranesi's views, a sheet now in Copenhagen. Typical of Piranesi's frugal reuse of paper, the study of three masks is drawn over an assistant's sketch of a sandaled foot.

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.

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Piranesi, Giovanni Battista

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