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Design for a tomb to Doge Giovanni Cornaro

Maker

Attributed to
(artist)
1598-1680

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1654

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink, brown wash on light brown laid paper, executed using a ruler and compass, laid down

Dimensions

Height: 42.3 cm
Width: 29.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1984.AB.52

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

Label Text

This drawing appears to be the only record of Francesco Cornaro's plan to erect a monument to his father, Doge Giovanni Cornaro, in the family chapel in S. Nicolò da Tolentino, Venice. Although the Doge died in 1630, the tomb was probably not planned until the completion of Bernini's masterpiece, the Cornaro chapel in S. Maria della Vittoria, Rome (for Giovanni's son Cardinal Federigo Cornaro), more than two decades later. Positioned frontally, the figure of the Doge engages directly with the viewer. The design incorporates motifs used repeatedly by Bernini, such as the door suggesting an entrance to the burial chamber and the figure of Justice (on the right) looking up at the deceased.

Provenance

Professor Anthony Blunt, London (1907-1983), by 1964; Blunt Bequest via the Art Fund 1984

Exhibition History

Architectural Drawings Workshop, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 02/08/2013-03/08/2013

A Passion for Drawings, Collectors at the Courtauld, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 28/02/2002-09/06/2002

Effigies and Ecstasies - Roman Baroque Sculpture and Design in
the Age of Bernini, National Gallery of Scotland & Edinburgh, 25/06/1998-20/09/1998 ...More

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

Literature

Effigies and Ecstasies - Roman Baroque Sculpture and Design in the Age of Bernini, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1998, 1998
no. 115
ill. on p. 150

Von Bernini bis Piranesi, Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie, 1993 Hatje 1993
p.120

Wittkower, Rudolf, Gian Lorenzo Bernini: the sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 1966, 1981
p. 216 ...More

Blunt, Anthony, 'Two drawings for sepulchral monuments by Bernini' in 'Essays in the History of Art presented to Rudolf Wittkower', 1967 - pp. 230-232
pp. 230-32
fig. 2 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Collector's mark: none.

Inscription: Verso (backing sheet): upper left corner, graphite: "4927"; upper right corner, graphite: "12/-"; right of centre, graphite: "3/3"; lower right, blue crayon: "23".

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