Panels of Ornament, nos. CLXXXVI–CXCII, plate 36 from "Designs for Various Ornaments"

Michelangelo Pergolesi

February 29, 1782 · Etching; printed in dark brown ink · Drawings and Prints

These designs, numbered CLXXXVI to CXCII, include panels of ornament with military trophies and two medallions that showing Leda and the swan. At center there is a vase with a handle of entwined snakes and a body decorated with swans near two dripping fountains below. 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).

Artist

Michelangelo Pergolesi

Date

February 29, 1782

Medium

Etching; printed in dark brown ink

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Herbert Mitchell, 2008