drawing;
print study
- Museum number
- 1908,0616.29
- Description
-
The Hospital of San Spirito
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over black chalk
Verso: Uninterpretable sketches
Black chalk, brush and brown ink
- Production date
- 1742-1744 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 121 millimetres
-
Width: 109 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Bent Sørensen pointed out that this is a preparatory study in the same sense for the 'View of S. Spirito' from the 'Varie Vedute di Roma Antica e Moderna' (J. Wilton-Ely, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the complete etchings', San Francisco, 1994, I, no. 70, p. 110). The right-hand side of the drawing is in Piranesi's sketchbook in Modena (Biblioteca Estense, Campori 1523, fol. 41 recto). The left-hand side of the print corresponds fairly closely to the drawing, except that the square in front of the buildings is made to look much larger by reducing the scale of the buildings in the distance, and the angle of their recession is slightly changed so that the far portal is seen from a slight angle and not frontally as here. The dating of the prints from this series is complex as they were produced at various times during the 1740s to illustrate Roman guide books. Stylistically the drawing is close to 1908,0616.30 (the one mounted below it) which is preparatory for one of the 'Prima Parte' prints of 1743, and it was probably drawn at much the same period.
HC
Lit.: E. Croft-Murray, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi', 1968, no.144; B. Sørensen, 'Two overlooked drawings by Piranesi for S. Giovanni in Laterano in Rome', 'The Burlington Magazine', CXLIII, July, 2001, p. 430, note 7
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1968 BM, 'Piranesi', no. 27
1978 Jun-Oct, NG Washington, 'Piranesi'
2020 20 Feb-9 Aug, London, BM, 'Piranesi's drawings'.
- Acquisition date
- 1908
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1908,0616.29
