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Design for a catafalque for Pope Clement XI

Maker

(artist)
born 1735

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1735

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink, brown wash on laid paper, executed using a ruler, laid down on a historic support, incised for transfer

Dimensions

Height: 41.9 cm
Width: 26.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1984.AB.110

Mode of Acquisition

Anthony Blunt, Art Fund bequest & grant aid, 1984

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

catafalques

Label Text

This catafalque may have been made for one of the principal churches of Naples (the inscription refers to 'palmi napoli') at the time of Pope Clement XI's death. Yet Granucci, a Neapolitan architect, seems not to have made the drawing as a design for the catafalque but rather to serve as a design for an engraving.

Notes

The arms are those of the Albani so the Pope for whom the catafalque was erected must be Clement XI, who died in 1721. This drawing was apparently not made as a design for the monument but for an engraving to commemorate it, engraved by Joseph Maillar (cf. Mancini, 'Feste e Apparati civili e religiosi in Napoli', Naples, 1968, p. 134).

Provenance

Whitaker (Cambridge) (?); purchased there by Professor Anthony Blunt (1907-1983), by February 1941; Blunt Bequest via the Art Fund 1984

Exhibition History

The Sir Anthony Blunt Collection, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1964 (February)

Architectural and decorative drawings, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 30/01/1941-28/02/1941

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, 'Naples in the eighteenth century: A. Architecture' in 'Burlington Magazine', April 1979 - pp. 250, 254-59; 121, 913
p. 258
fig. 83 on p. 255
see attached PDF

Architectural and decorative drawings, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1941
cat. no. 38

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Support, centre: crown above a large fleur-de-lis above large cursive letters "DTM" (no match in Heawood, Churchill or Piccard).

Inscription: Recto: lower left, brown ink: "Scala de Palmi Napoletani" above a scale numbered from "1" to "8"; lower right, brown ink, signed by the artist: "Barthol. Granucci Inve. Del:". Support, Verso: lower centre edge, graphite, underlined and supralined: "4"; lower right edge, graphite, Blunt number: "D.1984.AB.110. Granucci".

Collector's mark: none.

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