- Museum number
- 1908,0616.45
- Description
-
The Campidoglio, Rome
Red chalk, over black chalk and stylus indications, touched with pen and brown ink
Verso: Interior of the Pantheon, Rome, with figures beneath the domed roof
Red and black chalk
- Production date
- 1735-1778
- Dimensions
-
Height: 404 millimetres
-
Width: 701 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- A preparatory study for one of the plates of the 'Vedute di Roma' ( J. Wilton-Ely, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the complete etchings', San Francisco, 1994, I, no. 189). It is in the same direction and almost of the same dimensions as the print (404 x 701mm. as against 400 x 690mm. for the etching). Piranesi made a number of adjustments to the composition when he was working on the plate, especially in the foreground group of figures by antique masonry, and completely revised the numbering of the buildings for the key. The sliver of a building included at the right side of the composition only appears in the first state, it was subsequently reduced to a third of its height. The lighting of the print differs somewhat from that in the drawing, although it is interesting to note how Piranesi indicates in forceful red chalk shading the shadows falling across the façade. The pen is used to pick out the intricate detail of the Roman trophy and the contours of the two colossal marble figures on either side of the staircase.
The study on the verso of the interior of the Pantheon looking towards the high altar does not correspond to either of the 'Vedute di Roma' views of the building.
HC
Lit.: A.M. Hind, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi, a critical study', London, 1922, under no. 39; E. Croft-Murray, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi', 1968, no. 146a; J. Scott, 'Piranesi', New York and London, 1975, fig. 311; J. Wilton-Ely, in exhib. cat., London, South Bank, 'Piranesi', 1978, no. 88; J. Rowlands (ed.), in exhib. cat., BM, 'Master Drawings and Watercolours in the British Museum', 1984, no. 40
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1968 BM, 'Piranesi', no. 31
1978 London, Hayward Gallery, 'Piranesi', no. 88
1984 BM, 'Master Drawings and Watercolours in the British Museum', no. 40
1995 May-Jun, Hull, Ferens Art Gallery, 'Drawing the Line', no. 164
1995 Jul-Sep, London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 'Drawing the Line', no. 164
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
2012-2013 30 Nov-7 Apr, Bonn, Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2020 20 Feb-9 Aug, London, BM, 'Piranesi drawings'.
- Acquisition date
- 1908
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1908,0616.45
