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Lot Essay
A pendant to a drawing of the same size now in the Centre Canadien d'Architecture in Montreal, C.D. Denison et al., Exploring Rome: Piranesi and His Contemporaries, exhib. cat., New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library and Montreal, Centre Canadien d'Architecture, 1994, no. 17. The Canadian drawing has a similar inscription to that of the present sheet and shows similar black chalk underdrawing. Dr. Robison, who confirms the attribution of the present drawing, points out that Piranesi rarely did drawings as pendants.
The pendant represents a courtyard in the middle ground viewed from an oblique angle, with other architectural elements in the distance. At left is a round building with a portico, similar to that in the present drawing. To the right are two three-tiered towers flanking a three storey façade. Hylton Thomas dated the Canadian drawing to 1745-50, and compares it to the Fantastic monument in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, C.D. Denison, op. cit., no. 17, p. 32, fig. 1.
Dr. Robison noticed that the watermark of the present sheet is the same as that on other Piranesi drawings of the period. Both drawings are also close to the etching Fantastic port monument, or Fall of Phaeton, datable to 1745-9, C.D. Denison, op. cit., p. 33. Another comparable drawing is in the British Museum, C.D. Denison, op. cit., p. 71, fig. 2.
The pendant represents a courtyard in the middle ground viewed from an oblique angle, with other architectural elements in the distance. At left is a round building with a portico, similar to that in the present drawing. To the right are two three-tiered towers flanking a three storey façade. Hylton Thomas dated the Canadian drawing to 1745-50, and compares it to the Fantastic monument in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, C.D. Denison, op. cit., no. 17, p. 32, fig. 1.
Dr. Robison noticed that the watermark of the present sheet is the same as that on other Piranesi drawings of the period. Both drawings are also close to the etching Fantastic port monument, or Fall of Phaeton, datable to 1745-9, C.D. Denison, op. cit., p. 33. Another comparable drawing is in the British Museum, C.D. Denison, op. cit., p. 71, fig. 2.