The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 24, 2024

A Young Woman Buying a Pink from a Young Man

A Young Woman Buying a Pink from a Young Man

c. 1740
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The flower the woman in this drawing plucks from the bouquet—a “pink”—was associated with marriage and love in 18th-century Europe.

Description

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was celebrated for his finished drawings of saints, portraits, and teste di carattere (character heads). Cleveland’s sheet belongs to the latter genre, which describes portraits embellished with props to suggest a character type or types. Here, Piazzetta united three independent studies of individuals into a single scene, in which a young woman appears to purchase a pink—a type of flower related to the carnation—from a boy with a second young woman looking on.The image bristles with tantalizing narrative potential, but it is left to the viewer to interpret the scene as they wish. Drawings of this size and quality of finish were displayed on walls like paintings, rather than stored in portfolios, with the unfortunate consequence that the Venetian blue paper often faded to a grayish-tan as here. However, the virtuosity of Piazzetta’s technique endures on this sheet. His method of modeling—wetting and rubbing his black crayon rather than hatching—produces the density of tone and velvety shadow. Textural details are supplied by white chalk, evoking the silky weave of the boy’s shirt and the hard substance of the figures’ fingernails. Piazzetta's drawings were in high demand among affluent foreign visitors and helped to supplement his income.
  • ?-1938
    (Italico Brass [1870-1943], Venice, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nov. 1938.)
    1938-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
  • Shaw, James Byam. “Venice: Piazzetta at S. Giorgio Maggiore.” The Burlington Magazine 125, no. 969 (December 1983). Mentioned: p. 786 n.6
    Rava, Aldo. G.B. Piazzetta. Firenze: Fratelli Alinari, 1921. Mentioned: p. 71
    Fiocco, Giuseppe. “La Peinture à l’Exposition du XVIIIe Siècle à Venise.” La Renaissance 12, no. 12 (December 1929). Reproduced: p. 565
    Ojetti, Ugo et al. Il Settecento Italiano. Milan: Fratelli Treves Editori, 1932. Reproduced: fig. 244
    Pallucchini, Rodolfo. L’Arte di Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Bologna: Giuseppe Maylender Editore, 1934. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 58, 100, fig. 74
    “Cleveland: A Museum’s New Acquisitions.” The Art News 38, no. 40 (1940): 13-14. Mentioned: p. 13
    Francis, Henry S. "Two Drawings by Piazzetta." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 27, no. 7 (1940): 108-109. Mentioned: pp. 108-109
    Smith College, and Ruth Wedgwood Kennedy. Italian Drawing, 1330-1780, Smith College Museum of Art. Northampton, MA: Press-work by A. Wilson, 1941. Mentioned: cat. no. 51
    Goering, Max. “Giovanni Battista Piazzetta als Zeichner.” Pantheon 14, no. 11 (November 1941): 259-263. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 261-263
    Mongan, Agnes. “Italian Drawings 1330-1780: an Exhibition at the Smith College Museum of Art.” The Art Bulletin 24, no. 1 (March 1942): 92-94. Mentioned: p. 93
    Pallucchini, Rodolfo. Giovanni Battista PIazzetta, con cinquantasei tavole. Rome: Tumminelli, 1943. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 22, pl. 53
    Benesch, Otto. Venetian Drawings of the Eighteenth Century in America. New York: H. Bittner and Company, 1947. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 29, no. 11
    Tietze, Hans. European Master Drawings in the United States. New York: J.J. Augustin Publishers, 1947. Mentioned and Reproduced: 172-73, no. 86
    Fogg Museum of Art. Venice in the Eighteenth Century (May 7- June 10, 1948). Cambridge: Harvard University, 1948. Mentioned: no. 27
    Milliken, William M. “L’arte Italiana nel Museo di Cleveland.” Le Vie del Mondo 12, no. 9 (September 1950): 897-908. Reproduced: p. 908
    The Detroit Institute of Arts, John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, and E.P. Richardson. Venice 1700-1800: An Exhibition of Venice and the Eighteenth Century. Detroit: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1952. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 44, fig. 53
    Morassi, Antonio. “Una Mostra del Settecento Veneziano a Detroit.” Arte Veneta: Rivista Trimestrale di Storia dell’Arte 25 (1953). Mentioned: p. 52.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 572 archive.org
    Milliken, William M. The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 46
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 143 archive.org
    Alsop, Joseph. “Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Art in America 24, no.3 (May-June 1966). Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 23, 28.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 143 archive.org
    Precerutti-Garberi, Mercedes. Giambattista Piazzetta e l’accademia: disegni. Milan: Castello Sforzesco, 1971. Mentioned: p. 15, 23 under nos. 1 and 2, 28 under no. 5
    Bean, Jacob and Felice Stampfle. Drawings from New York Collections III: The Eighteenth Century in Italy. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1971. Mentioned: p. 34 under no. 40
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 142 archive.org
    Pallucchini, Rodolfo and Adriano Mariuz. L’opera completa del Piazzetta. Milan: Rizzoli Editore, 1982. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 131, 133, no.d12
    Knox, George, and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Piazzetta: A Tercentenary Exhibition of Drawings, Prints, and Books. 1983. Mentioned: p. 10, 30, 37, 126, 134, cat. no. 51, Reproduced: p. 134
    Pallucchini, Rodolfo et al. Giambattista Piazzetta: Il suo tempo, la sua scuola. Venice: Marsilio Editori, 1983. Mentioned: p. 134, under no. 50
    Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Alessandro Bettagno, and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. G.B. Piazzetta: disegni, incisioni, libri, manoscritti. Vicenza: Pozza, 1983. Mentioned: p. 25, under no. 16, p. 30, under no. 37
    Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Uwe Westfehling. Meisterzeichnungen von Leonardo bis zu Rodin. Cologne: Museen der Stadt Köln, 1986. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 110
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1991. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 106
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, John Russell, and Evan H. Turner. Masterpieces from East and West. New York: Rizzoli, 1992. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 126.
    Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robison. The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1994. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no 65, p. 145, 147, 474
    Alpers, Svetlana. “Post-Genius Venice.” Art in America, March 1995. Reproduced: p. 66.
    National Gallery of Art. 1995 Annual Report. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1996. Reproduced: p. 19
    Romanelli, Giandomenico and Filippo Pedrocco. Lorenzo Tiepolo e il suo tempo. (Milan: Electa, 1997). Reproduced: p. 33
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 21, p. 4, pp. 62-62, p. 286
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Annual Report 2000, 2001. Reproduced: p. 82.
  • Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    The Glory of Venice: Art in the 18th Century. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (September 15-December 14, 1994); National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (January 29-April 23, 1995).
    Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 1986-March 1, 1987).
    Giovanni Battista Piazzetta: A Tercentenary Exhibition. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (November 20, 1983-February 26, 1984).
    18th Century Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 6-November 22, 1981).
    Exhibition of eighteenth-century Italian Painting held in Venice, 1929 (no. 47).
    Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-February 25, 1968).
    Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).
    Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965).
    Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).
    Aspects of Drawing. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 10-April 2, 1961).
    Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960).
    Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
    Mozart and the Age of Reason. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 15-February 29, 1956).
    Venice 1700-1800: An Exhibition of the Venetian Eighteenth Century. Indianapolis Museum of Art; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (September 30-November 2, 1952).
    Life in Eighteenth Century Venice. Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (April 20-June 15, 1948).
    Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942).
    Italian Drawings, 1330-1780. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (organizer) (December 1-20, 1941).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
  • {{cite web|title=A Young Woman Buying a Pink from a Young Man|url=false|author=Giovanni Battista Piazzetta|year=c. 1740|access-date=24 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1938.387