Palatial Courtyard with a Fountain - Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Ada Turnbull Hertle Fund

"Palatial Courtyard with a Fountain" by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (c. 1750) Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash on buff laid paper.

Commentary

"Palatial Courtyard with a Fountain" by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (c. 1750) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together. Themes to notice include pen and ink drawings. This piece is held i n the source collection's Prints and Drawings collection. Giovanni Battista Piranesi is the artist behind this work. A useful anchor for reading the piece: Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian, 1720-1778. The work is cataloged within a Italy cultural context. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as pen and ink drawings, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash on buff laid paper) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (25.7 × 38.9 cm (10 1/8 × 15 3/8 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include pen and ink drawings. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16769

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data