Frontispiece

Series TitleRaccolta di alcuni disegni del Barbiere de Cento detto il Guercino

Artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778)

Date1764

MediumEtching

DimensionsPlate: 18 7/8 x 13 7/8 inches (47.94 x 35.24 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number33-377

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

Architecture and Decorative Arts in Prints from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 13-April 10, 1983, no. 31, as "Title page", dated 1764.

Gallery Label

This is a frontispiece to a book of prints made after a collection of drawings by Guercino, a 17th- century artist from Bologna. As the inscriptions show, the drawings belonged to Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, a sculptor in 18th-century Rome, and the book is dedicated to Thomas Jenkins, a successful dealer in antiquities also resident in the city. Books like this helped spread the fame of private collections like Cavaceppi’s and increased their market value. The reclining figure may symbolize scholarly contemplation.

Provenance

With Alden Galleries, Kansas City, MO, by June 3, 1933;

Purchased from Alden Galleries by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.

Published References

Architecture and Decorative Arts in Prints from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 13-April 10, 1983, p. 5, as "Title page", dated 1764.

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