Design for a Painted Wall Decoration for Palazzo Massimo all'Aracoeli (Rome)

Basilio Briccio

1683 · Pen and ink with green and gray wash, highlighted with white gouache · Drawings and Prints

Although registered as a painter at the Roman Accademia di San Luca, Basilio Briccio seems to have mainly been active as an architect. He worked together with his sister Plautilla who is one of the first female architects known to have worked in Italy. This drawing was made for one of Briccio’s lesser known projects: the decoration of a wall in the Palazzo of the ‘Signori Massimi’ in Rome (now destroyed). Presented are trompe l’oeil paintings of marble classical sculptures in niches against a wall with garden access. The artist used this sheet as a presentation drawing to show his patrons what it would look like. The same drawing was subsequently used as a contract between artist and patron. With their signatures in the lower left corner, they both agreed that the executed project would resemble the design as presented in this drawing.

Artist

Basilio Briccio

Date

1683

Medium

Pen and ink with green and gray wash, highlighted with white gouache

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1954