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Object Timeline
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1980 |
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2015 |
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2021 |
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2022 |
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2025 |
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Drawing, Ornament Design, Roman Shield, Panels, and Lunette
This is a Drawing. It was created by Michel Angelo Pergolesi. It is dated 1776 and we acquired it in 1980. Its medium is pen and ink, brush and watercolor over graphite on laid paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
Neoclassicism (meaning “new classicism”) refers to the revival of classical (that is, ancient Greek and Roman) styles in art and culture. The type of neoclassicism popular in Great Britain in Pergolesi’s time looks different from the Beaux-Arts neoclassical style of Cooper Hewitt’s Carnegie Mansion (built around 1900), but the two versions have much in common. Both repeat patterns and motifs that have been popular in Western art and design for thousands of years. At the right of this drawing is an undulating pattern called a “Vitruvian wave,” which appears as a carved wooden ornament in the upper register of the wall niche at left, and as a painted ornament on an ancient vase in the case nearby.
It is credited Gift of Unknown Donor.
Its dimensions are
Mount: 71.8 × 50.8 cm (28 1/4 in. × 20 in.) Sheet: 48.3 × 34.3 cm (19 in. × 13 1/2 in.) Center Design Motif: 23.5 × 11.2 cm (9 1/4 × 4 3/8 in.)
Cite this object as
Drawing, Ornament Design, Roman Shield, Panels, and Lunette; Michel Angelo Pergolesi (Italian, active ca. 1760–1801); pen and ink, brush and watercolor over graphite on laid paper; Mount: 71.8 × 50.8 cm (28 1/4 in. × 20 in.) Sheet: 48.3 × 34.3 cm (19 in. × 13 1/2 in.) Center Design Motif: 23.5 × 11.2 cm (9 1/4 × 4 3/8 in.); Gift of Unknown Donor; 1980-32-1421
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Mr. Pergolesi's Curious Things.
