A Man Leaning on a Structure
later 1760s
Medium
pen and dark brown ink on fragment of a printed title page
Dimensions
overall: 16.1 × 9.9 cm (6 5/16 × 3 7/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
1983.27.1
Art Historical Context
In the later 1760s, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the visionary Italian artist famed for his dramatic etchings of Roman ruins and fantastical architecture, created *A Man Leaning on Structure*. This intimate drawing captures Piranesi's enduring fascination with the human figure amid architectural forms, rendered in pen and dark brown ink on repurposed fragment of a printed title page. Measuring just 16.1 × 9.9 cm, it exemplifies his improvisational sketches, likely made during a busy period when he was producing intricate print series like the *Vedute di Roma*. Piranesi's masterful use of ink l...
About the Artist
Giovanni Battista Piranesi · 1720–1778
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) was an Italian printmaker, architect, and antiquarian whose visionary etchings of Rome and imaginary prisons revolutionized architectural representation and profoundly influenced both Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Piranesi stands as one of the most important printmakers of the eighteenth century, fundamentally shaping European perceptions of ancient Rome an...