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Gianbattista Piranesi
Mozano di Mestre, Venice 1720 – 1778 Rome

Cinerary Urns, a lamp and other objects

Gianbattista Piranesi, Mozano di Mestre, Venice 1720 – 1778 Rome. Cinerary Urns, a lamp and other objects. Original etching, c1779.

Cinerary Urns, a lamp and other objects
Wilton Ely 892
415 x 653 mm
Original etching.
The plate dedicated to the English Grand Tourist Sir Francis Dickins.
Issued by Piranesi in his lifetime, before the plate number 5 in the top right corner.
On heavy laid paper watermarked with a Lily in a Double Circle with letter B over.
Usual central vertical fold.

£950

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Additional Information about the Print

The Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcophagi, tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichi disegnati ed incise dal Cav. Gio. Batt. Piranesi
(Vases, candelabra, grave stones, sarcophagi, tripods, lamps and ornaments designed and etched by Cavaliere Giovanni Battista Piranesi)

Increasingly after the death of Pope Clement XIII Piranesi relied on restoring and selling newly excavated antiquities to supplement his income from print selling. He had a ‘museum’ and showrooms as well as workshops in his home in Palazzo Tomati. His approach to the works he restored was creative and imaginative and had a great influence on interior design of the day.

From 1768 Piranesi published over a hundred individual plates of notable antiquities either for sale or in private collections, dedicated to individual customers, many of whom were members of the English aristocracy.

Piranesi’s son Francesco re-issued the plates, for the first time collectively, bound in two volumes, in 1778, the year of Piranesi’s death. For that or subsequent editions, the plates were numbered.

In the plate margin at the foot Piranesi describes the objects, probably all restored and sold by him, and in some instances their origin and present whereabouts.

The three smaller round cinerary vases all sold to English grand tourists, the central one having been found in 1760, while the two large marble urns were found in antique tombs in Siena, now also both in England.

The double rectangular urn today is in the Soane Museum in London, illustrated on their website, with the caption “this urn was assembled by the Piranesi workshop. Only the middle section is antique (not the inscriptions). The sides, lid and base are made to Piranesi's design, as illustrated in G.B. Piranesi, Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcofagi tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichi, fol, Rome, 1779, pl. 5”.

Prints from Vasi.. ed Ornamenti Antichi in this exhibition are: