Collection Online as of September 27, 2023
Eighteen Views of Rome: The Piazza Farnese (recto)
Part of a set. See all set records
Lievin Cruyl
(Flemish, c. 1640-c. 1720)
Pen and brown ink and brush and gray and blue wash over graphite; squared in graphite (two figures in the foreground); framing lines in brown ink
Support: Cream(3) laid paper; paper strips mounted to the perimeter of the verso
Sheet: 38.7 x 49 cm (15 1/4 x 19 5/16 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1943.257.a
Location
not on view
Description
Flemish artist Lieven Cruyl made a number of drawings of emblematic vistas of Rome for the Roman publisher Giovanni Battista de Rossi, of which ten were published as etchings in 1666. The Piazza Farnese features architecture designed by Michelangelo, who completed the Palazzo Farnese after the death of its original designer, Antonio da Sangallo, in 1546. His main contribution was the third story and the significantly protruding cornice at the top of the facade, which dramatically hangs over the front of the building, like sculpture.