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Workshop of. Giovanni Battista Piranesi
1720-1778
Study of a Roman Altar.
ca. 1765-1775
Black and red chalk on paper.
7 x 5 3/4 inches (179 x 145 mm)
Bequest of Junius S. Morgan and gift of Henry S. Morgan.
1966.11:37
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. 37, repr.
Inscription:
Numbered at lower center, in graphite, "101 (?)".
Notes:
This is a depiction by a member of Piranesi's workshop of the Roman Altar with Selene (Luna), the Dioscuri, Phosphoros (the Morning Star), and Hesperos (the Evening Star) now in the Louvre, inv. Ma508, but in Piranesi's time at the Villa Borghese. For another study of the same object, see Bernardino Ciferri's drawing at the British Museum, inv. 2103,5015.2.80. The work also appears as plate 21 of Winckelmann's "Monumenti Antichi Inediti" of 1767.
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