drawing;
album
- Museum number
- At,10.56
- Description
-
Design for a stage set with perspective view of a street with an archway in the centre and with the section to the left unfinished; page in an album
Pen and brown ink, over black chalk
- Production date
- 1621-1658
- Dimensions
-
Height: 120 millimetres
-
Width: 148 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- For details of the Grimaldi album see entry for At,10.1.
Lit.: N. Turner, 'Italian Drawings in the BM, Roman Baroque Drawings', London, 1999, I, no. 144(56)
Turner 1999
As was recognised by Batorska, this is a preparatory study for one of the four stage sets designed by Grimaldi for the opera 'Il trionfo della Pietà ovvero la vita humana', which was staged by the Barberini on 31 January 1656 to honour the arrival in Rome of Queen Christina of Sweden (Batorska, 1994, pp. 41, 46 and 49, n. 18). The libretto, which is an allegorical account of the struggle of Guilt and Innocence in human life, with the ultimate triumph of the latter, was illustrated by five etchings by G. B. Galestruzzi (1618-after 1661) showing the theatre's proscenium and the four stage sets (Batorska, 1971, pp. 251-3). The design is most similar to the sets of the third act as well as those of the final scene. Grimaldi began to make drawings of the sets from November 1655, and they were ready to be painted by 1 December. For further studies that may be associated with this opera see At,10.52, At,10.106-7.
Literature: Batorska, 1994, pp. 41, 46 and 49, n. 18.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1799
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- At,10.56
