Sunday, August 21, 2016

18th-century Drawings (and Elephant) from Italy

Antonio Basoli
Scene in Arcady
18th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Andrea Locatelli
Landscape with figures
18th century
drawing
Prado

Aureliano Milani
Hilly landscape
18th century
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanc'd, behold with strange surprize
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky,
Th' eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last:
But, these attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way,
Th' increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

 from the Essay on Criticism of Alexander Pope (1711)

Marco Ricci
Travelers in an Italian Landscape
18th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Gian Paolo Panini
Sack of a city
18th century
drawing
British Museum

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
Executioner displaying severed head
18th century
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
Studies of hands
18th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
Studies of torsos
18th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
Youth in profile
ca. 1715-18
drawing
British Museum

Giambattista Tiepolo
Head of a Magus
18th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Carlo Bianconi
Studies of heads
18th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giambattista Tiepolo & workshop
Personification of Fortitude with an obelisk
1760
fresco (detached)
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rosalba Carriera
Muse
1720s
pastel
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Giacomo Zoffoli
Elephant
18th century
gilt bronze
Prado