- Museum number
- 1908,0616.20
- Description
-
A monumental vaulted interior viewed from beneath an arch
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over red chalk
- Production date
- 1745-1755
- Dimensions
-
Height: 162 millimetres
-
Width: 224 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- The foreground element appears in reverse in pl. XI of the first edition of the 'Carceri' of 1749/50 (J. Wilton-Ely, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the complete etchings', San Francisco, 1994, I, no. 36). Hind's suggestion that the drawing is a study for the print has been accepted by all subsequent critics, even though the style of the drawing is not all that close to the Hamburg study for the 'Carceri' (Thomas, no. 4) which is drawn in the flickering, nervous manner of the late 1740s (1908,0616.12 is an example of a drawing from the same period). The forceful red chalk underdrawing is much closer to studies of a few years later such as 1849,0314.159, and if this dating is accepted then this is a reworking of the 'Carceri' theme after the publication of the first edition not a preliminary study (as indeed are most of the drawings usually connected to the series including 1908,0616.8). This later date also makes more sense for the stylistically compatible drawing on the same mount (1908,0616.20), the inscription of which alludes to the debate as to the superiority of Greek over Roman architecture that began in earnest with the publication of Laugier's 1753 book 'Essai sur l'architecture'. If the present drawing was really a study for the first edition of the 'Carceri' then it would follow that Piranesi was already concerned with this topic by the late 1740s, and there is no evidence to think that he was.
HC
Lit.: A.M. Hind, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi', London, 1922, p. 23; H. Thomas, 'The Drawings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi', London, 1954, no. 18; P.M. Seckler, 'Notes on old and modern Drawings. Giovanni Battista Piranesi's 'Carceri' etchings and related Drawings', "The Art Quarterly", XXV, 4, 1962, fig. 15; E. Croft-Murray, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi', 1968, no. 115; R. Bacou, 'Piranèse, gravures et dessins', Paris, 1974, p. 41; J. Scott, 'Piranesi', New York and London, 1975, fig. 65; J.-F.Méjanès, in exhib. cat., Rome, Villa Medici, Dijon, Palais des États de Bourgogne and Paris, Hôtel de Sully, 'Piranèse et les Français', 1976, no. 148; J. Wilton-Ely, in exhib. cat., London, South Bank, 'Piranesi', 1978, no. 193a; A. Robison, 'Piranesi: early architectural fantasies, a catalogue raisonné of the etchings', Chicago and London, 1986, p. 39, fig. 45, and under no. 37; S. Gavuzzo-Stewart, 'Nelle Carceri di G.B. Piranesi', Leeds, 1999, p. 84, fig. 44
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1968 BM, 'Piranesi', no. 23
1976 May-Jun, Rome, Villa Medici, 'Piranesi and the French', no. 148
1976 Jul-Sept, Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 'Piranesi', no. 148
1976 Oct-Nov, Paris, Hotel de Sully, 'Piranesi', no. 148
1978, London, Hayward Gallery, 'Piranesi', no. 193a
1988 Apr-May, Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, 'Piranesi's Prisons', no. 19
2002/3, Oct-April, BM, 'Piransesi's 'Carceri' (Prisons)', (no cat.)
2003 May-July, Sth Bank Tour, Northumbria Univ Gall, Piranesi's Carceri
2003 July-Oct, Sth Bank Tour, York, City AG, Piranesi's Carceri
2003 Oct-Dec, Sth Bank Tour, Milton Keynes AG, Piranesi's Carceri
2003/4 Dec-Feb, Sth Bank Tour, Bath, Victoria AG, Piranesi's Carceri
2020 20 Feb-9 Aug, London, BM, 'Piranesi's drawings'.
- Acquisition date
- 1908
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1908,0616.20
