Pietro GONZAGA

As one scholar has noted, ‘Like Piranesi, Gonzaga built a few actual structures but had more success creating grand architectural proposals as drawings; in Gonzaga’s case they were frequently converted into etchings by others.’ Gonzaga’s drawings of stage designs are characterized by an interest in complex perspective and a bold use of pen and ink washes, here used to bathe the scene in bright sunlight. Among stylistically comparable set designs by Gonzaga are two drawings of classical buildings, one, like the present sheet, formerly in the collection of Nicola Benois in Milan and the other at one time in the Kaufman collection in London. Also similar are two stage designs, one dated 1814, that appeared on the art market in 2000 and 2006, and another stage design by Gonzaga that was sold at auction twice in the 1980s.

The present sheet belonged to the Russian artist, art critic and scenographer Alexandre Benois (1870-1960) and later passed to his son, the stage and costume designer Nicola Benois (1901-1988).