Fantasy of a Façade with Bizarre Ornaments, 1764/1766

Not on View

Medium

pen and dark brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper

Dimensions

overall: 60.1 x 47.2 cm (23 11/16 x 18 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

Woodner Collection

Accession Number

1991.182.17

Artists / Makers

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (artist) Venetian, 1720 - 1778

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

upper left in brown ink: Piranesi. f.; by later hand, lower right in brown ink: Bought of Piranesi / in Rome March 1770 / by Joseph Rose

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Joseph Rose, Rome, March 1770; presented to Sir Christopher Sykes (1749-1801), Sledmere; private collection (sale, London, Christie's, 4 July 1989); purchased by Ian Woodner, New York; by inheritance to his daughters, Andrea and Dian Woodner, New York, 1990; gift to NGA, 1991.

Associated Names

Rose, Joseph
Woodner Family Collection, Inc., Ian, The

Exhibition History

1989: Old Master Drawings, Christie, Manson, and Woods, LTD., London, 1989, 60-65.

1995: The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996, no. 84.

1997: Building a Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997-1998, no. 59, as A Facade with Bizarre Ornaments.

2000: Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000-2001, 186.

2006: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007.

2014: The Poetry of Light - La poesia della luce: Venetian Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, Museo Correr, Venice, Venice, 2014 - 2015, no. 93.

2017: The Woodner Collections: Master Drawings from Seven Centuries, NGA, 2017.

Bibliography

1995: The Touch of the Artist. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995: 302-305.

2000: Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000: 186-187.

2002: Robison, Andrew. "Piranesi's Later Drawings of Architectural Fantasies," Giovanni Battista Piranesi-Die Wahrnehmung von Raum und Zeit. Akten des internationalen Symposiums Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 25. bis 26. Juni 1999. Marburg, 2000: 53-54, 56-57, 60, fig. 4.