Standing Young Man

Description

After artistic training in Venice, Piranesi settled permanently in Rome, yet his lively drawing style remained Venetian. While Piranesi's figure sketches tend to be studies of movement, this sheet is unusual in showing a figure standing still. The brevity of the marks and the forceful application of ink create a figure of great expressive power. The figures that inhabit Piranesi's late scenes of Paestum and Pompeii are also relatively static and, like the present drawing, executed in broad, simplified strokes. As he often did, the artist drew this sketch on the back of a proof impression of one of his prints in his series of "Views of Rome."
Exhibition label text for "Venice, Traditions Transformed," September 21, 1996 - January 12, 1997 by Annette Dixon and Monika Schmitter.