drawing
- Museum number
- 1908,0616.16
- Description
-
A staircase flanked by two obelisks and an arcaded building in the background
Pen and brown ink, with grey wash, over black chalk
Verso: Various sketches (cut away)
- Production date
- 1745-1750 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 111 millimetres
-
Width: 76 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- As Croft-Murray noted, the composition of the drawing bears some resemblance to the 'Mausoleo Antico' in the 'Opera Varie' of 1750. He dates the present work to c.1743, the same period as the National Gallery of Scotland study for the above mentioned print (H. Thomas, 'The Drawings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi', London, 1954, no. 2). The two drawings are in fact very different in style, and the BM one is probably a few years later. The free penwork with areas of unmodulated wash in the present drawing is found in the Hamburg 'Exedra with column' (H. Thomas, 'The Drawings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi', London, 1954, no. 27B), dated by Thomas to 1745-50.
HC
Lit.: E. Croft-Murray, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi', 1968, no. 122
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1968 BM, Piranesi, no.24
2020 20 Feb-9 Aug, London, BM, 'Piranesi's drawings'.
- Acquisition date
- 1908
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1908,0616.16
