Fantasy of a Magnificent Wall Monument, 1764/1766

Not on View

Medium

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

Dimensions

overall: 60.7 × 47.2 cm (23 7/8 × 18 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

Patrons' Permanent Fund

Accession Number

1996.119.1

Artists / Makers

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (artist) Venetian, 1720 - 1778

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

center left in pen and brown ink: Piranesi.F.; lower right in pen and brown ink: Bought of Piranesi in Rome / March 1770 by Joseph Rose

Provenance

Joseph Rose, London (purchased 1770 directly from the artist); presented to Sir Christopher Sykes (1749-1801), Sledmere; private collection (sale, London, Christie's, 4 July 1989, no. 104; (Agnew's, London and David Tunick, New York); purchased 1996 by NGA.

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Rose, Joseph
Tunick, Inc., David

Exhibition History

1997: Building a Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997-1998, no. 61, as Fantasy on a Monumental Wall Tomb.

2000: Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000-2001, 184.

2000: Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2000, no. 389, repro. (Philadelphia only).

2014: The Poetry of Light - La poesia della luce: Venetian Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, Museo Correr, Venice, Venice, 2014 - 2015, no. 92.

Bibliography

2000: Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000: 184-185.

2000: Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000: 545.

2002: Robison, Andrew. "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. Marburg, 2002: 52, 54, 56-57.