print
- Museum number
- 1940,0726.1
- Title
- Series: Roman frescos of the Villa Negroni
- Description
-
The central panel depicting Venus shaking a tree from which Cupids are falling; plate I.
Engraving hand coloured with gouache.
- Production date
- 1778
- Dimensions
-
Height: 540 millimetres (sheet)
-
Width: 653 millimetres (sheet)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This is an almost complete set (lacking of pl.V) of a series made of thirteen plates, each showing a different wall of the so-called Villa Negroni, which was excavated in Rome near the Baths of Diocletian in July 1777.
The series was after drawings by Anton Raphael Mengs for the first three plates, and once the artist passed away the rest of the drawings were produced by his brother-in-law Anton von Maron. Most of them were engraved by Campanella, apart from plates X-XII that were apparently engraved by Carattoni and plates VI-VII by Vitali. The architect Camillo Buti was the publisher of the publication, who announces the thirteen plates, along with a plan of the house and a brief description of the rooms in a Manifesto in 1778. Plates IX to XII are rare, and plate XIII is still nowadays a mystery.
For more detailed information on the frescoes, see: Hetty Joyce, 'The Ancient Frescoes from the Villa Negroni and their Influence in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', The Art Bulletin (1983): LXV,3, pp.423-440; for more information on this project, see: Steffi Roettgen (ed): 'Anton Raphael Mengs and his British Patrons', Exhibition catalogue, Kenwood House, 1993, pp.144-7. Another impression of the series is in the Sir John Soane's Museum (Drawer 84. Set 1).
For two incomplete sets (plates I-VIII) lettered with dedication and production details see 1981,U.135-142 and 1917,1208.23.1-8.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1940
- Acquisition notes
- Transferred from the department of printed Books.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1940,0726.1
