- Museum number
- 1908,0616.8
- Description
-
Interior with arches, bridges and flights of steps
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over red chalk (some of the red chalk is over the brown wash), an accidental splash of green paint in the top right corner
- Production date
- 1745-1755
- Dimensions
-
Height: 178 millimetres
-
Width: 242 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Thomas dates this to c. 1745, but it is must be later since it is similar in conception to the 'Carceri' series, the first edition of which was issued 1749/50 and the heavily revised second edition came out in 1761. Scott, Wilton-Ely and Robison believe this to be a study for pl. XIV of the 'Carceri', even though it differs in many details from the finished work (J. Wilton-Ely, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the complete etchings', San Francisco, 1994, I, no. 39). The style of the drawing - like 1908,0616.20 - also does not accord with the Piranesi's style of the late 1740s, such as the Hamburg study for one of the 'Carceri' (Thomas no. 4) or 1908,0616.12, and it is almost certainly later. The bold red chalk underdrawing is much more like studies from the first half of the 1750s, for example the BM study for one of frontispieces for 'Le Antichità Romane' published in 1756. Piranesi during the 1750s appears to have made a number of drawings loosely based on the 'Carceri', perhaps as part of his creation of the revised edition of 1761. The BM has a number of stylistically comparable drawings which must date from around the same period: 1840,0314.159, 1908,0616.7, 20 and 21.
HC
Lit.: H. Thomas, 'The Drawings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi', London, 1954, no. 9; 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. 19; E. Croft-Murray, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi', 1968, no. 114; J. Scott, 'Piranesi', New York and London, 1975, p. 53, fig. 61; J. Wilton-Ely, in exhib. cat., London, South Bank, 'Piranesi', 1978, no. 196; A. Robison, 'Piranesi: the early architectural fantasies, a catalogue raisonné of the etchings', Chicago and London, 1986, p. 41, fig. 49 and under no.40; S. Gavuzzo-Stewart, 'Nelle Carceri di G.B. Piranesi', Leeds, 1999, p. 84, fig. 43
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1968 BM, Piranesi, no. 114
1978, London, Hayward Gallery, 'Piranesi', no. 196
1988 Apr-May, Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, 'Piranisi's Prisons', no. 18
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 drawings'.
- Acquisition date
- 1908
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1908,0616.8
