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拍品專文
Like Watteau, Piranesi created a large stock of figure studies which he used to enliven his compositions. An early biography of him written by Jacques Guillaume Legrand before 1799 remarked that Piranesi regularly carried with him paper and chalk in order to draw from life.
The present drawing is remarkable in that seven of the eight figure studies on it can be closely connected with figures in Piranesi's etchings. A. Hylton Thomas stated in his pioneering monograph, The Drawings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, London and New York, 1954, p. 28, 'I have not been able to find an identical correspondence between any single drawn figure and any etched figure - at least slight variations in scale, in pose and in details can always be noted ... Nevertheless figures which are uncommonly like his sketched ones will be encountered in the prints'. In the forty years since those words were written it has been widely accepted that only general rather then specific similarities can be recorded.
This drawing, previously unpublished, seems to be the exception that proves the rule as many if not all of the figures appear quite precisely in the artist's prints. The sheet has been oiled on the back to make the paper transparent, enabling the studies on the front to show through. Thus they could be transferred in either direction to the surface of the copper plates.
The man pulling a rope in the upper left corner is similar to the figure on the left of the print of Vedute di un Eliocamino per abitarvi l'Inverno, in the Vedute di Roma series (Hind 133). The second figure from the left in the upper row and the second from right in the lower row are found in the center background and left foreground respectively of the etching Rovine d'una galleria di statue nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli (Hind 93) from the same series. The third figure in the top row could be that seated in reverse to the right of Del Castello dell'Acqua Giulia, the eight plate in the set Le Rovine del Castello dell' Acqua Giulia published in Rome in 1761 (Focillon 409). The last figure on the top row resembles the second from the left in the Vedute delle due Chiese, l'una detta della Madonna di Loreto... (Hind 66). The figure leaning against a post is found, in reverse, in the foreground of the etching of the Colonna Antonina from Le Antichit Romane published in Rome in 1756. The man on the left of the lower row is very close to the one in the right foreground of the Veduta del Palazzo Farnese from the Vedute di Roma (Hind 107), leaning on a column drum.
Similar chalk drawings are found in the Pierpont Morgan Library (F. Stampfle, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1978, no. A10); illustrated in A. Hylton Thomas, op. cit., figs. 66, 76; sold at Christie's London, 2 July 1991, lot 130; and exhibited at Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachussetts, Piranesi, 1961, no. 26.
The latter drawing, the one in red chalk sold in these Rooms, 30 January 1997, and the present sheet are all from the collection of Charles Gasc, who owned a number of Piranesi drawings. The sheet sold at Christie's in 1997 was acquired by Gasc the same day as the present one, 25 January 1860. Gasc's collector mark appears also on a similar red chalk drawing, exhibited in Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Disegni di Giambattista Piranesi, 1978, no. 61.
The present drawing is remarkable in that seven of the eight figure studies on it can be closely connected with figures in Piranesi's etchings. A. Hylton Thomas stated in his pioneering monograph, The Drawings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, London and New York, 1954, p. 28, 'I have not been able to find an identical correspondence between any single drawn figure and any etched figure - at least slight variations in scale, in pose and in details can always be noted ... Nevertheless figures which are uncommonly like his sketched ones will be encountered in the prints'. In the forty years since those words were written it has been widely accepted that only general rather then specific similarities can be recorded.
This drawing, previously unpublished, seems to be the exception that proves the rule as many if not all of the figures appear quite precisely in the artist's prints. The sheet has been oiled on the back to make the paper transparent, enabling the studies on the front to show through. Thus they could be transferred in either direction to the surface of the copper plates.
The man pulling a rope in the upper left corner is similar to the figure on the left of the print of Vedute di un Eliocamino per abitarvi l'Inverno, in the Vedute di Roma series (Hind 133). The second figure from the left in the upper row and the second from right in the lower row are found in the center background and left foreground respectively of the etching Rovine d'una galleria di statue nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli (Hind 93) from the same series. The third figure in the top row could be that seated in reverse to the right of Del Castello dell'Acqua Giulia, the eight plate in the set Le Rovine del Castello dell' Acqua Giulia published in Rome in 1761 (Focillon 409). The last figure on the top row resembles the second from the left in the Vedute delle due Chiese, l'una detta della Madonna di Loreto... (Hind 66). The figure leaning against a post is found, in reverse, in the foreground of the etching of the Colonna Antonina from Le Antichit Romane published in Rome in 1756. The man on the left of the lower row is very close to the one in the right foreground of the Veduta del Palazzo Farnese from the Vedute di Roma (Hind 107), leaning on a column drum.
Similar chalk drawings are found in the Pierpont Morgan Library (F. Stampfle, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1978, no. A10); illustrated in A. Hylton Thomas, op. cit., figs. 66, 76; sold at Christie's London, 2 July 1991, lot 130; and exhibited at Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachussetts, Piranesi, 1961, no. 26.
The latter drawing, the one in red chalk sold in these Rooms, 30 January 1997, and the present sheet are all from the collection of Charles Gasc, who owned a number of Piranesi drawings. The sheet sold at Christie's in 1997 was acquired by Gasc the same day as the present one, 25 January 1860. Gasc's collector mark appears also on a similar red chalk drawing, exhibited in Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Disegni di Giambattista Piranesi, 1978, no. 61.