Object Image

Studies of Figures for the Apotheosis of Bodoni

Scholars know little about this simple sketch, celebrating Giambattista Bodoni, an Italian printer who designed several modern typefaces in the late 1700s. It was probably taken from the pages of a notebook, as the top of the mount has been stamped with the numbers 16 and 3. The drawing, which shows three different groups of figures gathered at a balcony, is a preparatory study for the artist's cartoon The Apotheosis of Giambattista Bodoni.

Credit: Gift of Elisa Marcato Enrico, last descendant of the artist

Digital image and text courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program....

c. 1800
Pen and brown ink and wash
17.5 x 10.8cm
96.GA.336

Where you'll find this

The Getty Center
Permanent collection