Lot Essay
The present drawing, which dates from the 1630s or 1640s, was etched in the same sense by Bartolozzi, when in the collection of Count Zanetti. This etching was included in Piranesi's Raccolta di alcuni disegni del Barberi da Cento detto Il Guercino, published in Rome in 1764 (fig. 1). Vivant-Denon acquired the drawing when he bought the Zanetti collection in 1791. While in Vivant-Denon's collection the drawing was lithographed by Dagneau. Bartolozzi executed a second plate copied from his earlier etching, after his arrival in England. A copy, formerly in the collection of Consul Joseph Smith, is at Windsor, Mahon and Turner, op. cit., no. 576