Lot 384: ATTRIBUTED TO ENNEMOND-ALEXANDRE PETITOT

LYON 1727 - 1801 PARMA THE INTERIOR OF AN ELABORATE TEMPLE, DEDICATED TO ILLUSTRIOUS MEN Pen and black ink and grey wash, within black ink framing lines; bears inscription in black chalk, verso: Petitot and in another hand: Tempio della Gloria eretto alli Uomini Illustri per servire di Sipario a Pavia 367 by 397 mm

Sale, London, Phillips, 6 July 1994, lot 131, reproduced (as Circle of Nicolas Moretty), purchased by Ralph Holland

Ralph Holland noticed that this is derived from Piranesi's etching of 1743, a design for a temple dedicated to Vesta. That print is a vertical composition and differs from the present drawing in many details, but there can be no doubting the connection.1 According to the inscription on the back, this was a design for a theatre curtain for Pavia. 1. J. Wilton-Ely, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Complete Etchings, San Francisco 1974, vol. I, p. 36, no. 17, reproduced