Object Image

Interior Ornamented Wall with Doors, nos. 228–239 ("Designs for Various Ornaments," pl. 42)

These designs for an interior wall with doors, and a central panel showing Cupid holding a wreath, are numbered 228-239. The print comes from a group that Pergolesi made and published serially in London between 1777 and 1792. There is no title page, but a prospectus of ca. 1786 described the group as: "A great variety of original designs of vases, figures, medallions, friezes, pilasters, panels and other ornaments, in the Etruscan and grotesque style." The complete set contains 67 plates numbered 1-66 (two are numbered 56), with designs within the plates irregularly numbered 1-435 (in Roman numerals at first, then with Arabic numbers). In 1801, after Pergolesi's death, four additional plates of designs were published by a bookseller Dulouchamp (or Dulonchamp).

Credit: Bequest of Herbert Mitchell, 2008

July 17, 1782
Etching
45.2 x 27.4cm
2018.839.27
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

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