Perspective view of false dome of Sant'Ignazio in Rome.

Drawing, pen and black ink, grey and brown wash, 21 x 28 cm, laid paper with brown/yellow tone, unsigned.

Under 19th-c. passe-partout, under wooden frame (not studied outside frame).

The drawing is based on an engraved illustration (pl. 91) of Andrea Pozzo's "Perspectiva Pictorum et Architectorum", first published in 1693 in Rome, one of the most important Baroque pieces of writing on architecture and architectural painting. The cupola was created by Pozzo in the Sant'Ignazio (1688-1964) as a trompe-l'oeil to create the illusion of a real dome. The mockdome was one of the most famous examples of Baroque architectural wit and instructed a new generation in designing similar painted architectural structures. The present drawing is probably a study sheet as it also contains a sketch of a Corinthian capital.
Prov. Wolfhardt Bürgi (coll. stamp at lower right, Lugt 3400).