Fantasy on a Magnificent Triumphal Artch

1765

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Artist, Venetian, 1720 - 1778

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and brown ink, heightened with reed pen and brown ink, some brown wash (laid on eighteenth-century card)

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 46.3 x 63.1 cm (18 1/4 x 24 13/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1986.32.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Joseph Windham [1739-1810]; apparently to Anketell Singleton, Languard Fort; by 1800 to Thomas Blofeld, Wroxham; by descent to T.R.C. Blofeld; purchased (via John Mitchell and Son) by NGA, 1986.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1958

  • Eighteenth Century Italy and the Grand Tour, Norwich Castle Museum, May 23-July 20, 1958, Norwich, no. 44.

1959

  • Il Settecento a Roma, Rome, 1959, no. 459.

1994

  • The Glory of Venice, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994, 401, 402, 485, no. 282 (repro. p. 401, color)(entry by Olimpia Theodoli).

1997

  • Building a Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997-1998, no. 63.

2014

  • The Poetry of Light - La poesia della luce: Venetian Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, Museo Correr, Venice, Venice, 2014 - 2015, no. 91.

Bibliography

1958

  • Ford, Brinsley, "Italy and the Grand Tour at Norwich," The Burlington Magazine c.658-699 (1958): 317.

  • A Loan Exhibition of Eighteenth-Century Italy and the Grand Tour. Norwich Castle Museum, Norwich, 1958: 26.

1959

  • Il Settecento a Roma. De Luca, Rome, 1959: 176.

1978

  • Wilton-Ely, PIRANESI, Ldn, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978: 114, no. 291.

1994

  • The Glory of Venice. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museo del Settecento Veneziano - Ca'Rezzonico, Venice; Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, 1994-1995: 401-402, 485.

2002

  • Andrew Robison, "Piranesi's Later Drawings of Architectural Fantasies," in Giovanni Battista Piranesi-Die Wahrnehmung von Raum und Zeit. Akten des internationalen Symposiums Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 25. bis 26. Juni 1999. Eds., Corinna Höper, et al. Marburg, 2002: 50-51, 62, 63, fig. 2, and cover.

Inscriptions

lower right in brown ink: I.B.Piranesi. fecit. decr.31.1765.; inscribed by Joseph Wyndham, verso in brown ink: Piranesi / Drawn at Rome in the presence of Joseph Wyndham Esq

Wikidata ID

Q64572344

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