Lot 90: GIACOMO QUARENGHI

VIEW OF THE FARNESE HERCULES IN THE .PORTICO. OF THE COURTYARD OF THE FARNESE PALACE, ROME

11 15/16 by 9 3/16 in; 304 by 233 mm

Pen and black ink and watercolor;inscribed in pencil on the verso: Veduta in Napoli and Quarenghi

Very similar to the view by Quarenghi now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (inv. 25819). (1) There are small differences in the architecture, the two figures on the right of the St. Petersburg drawing are missing in the present sheet, and the statue of Hercules is seen from a closer point of view. Representations of celebrated antique sculptures in their interior or exterior locations were very popular with collectors and tourists in the eighteenth century. Quarenghi's drawings of this type are generally believed to have been made during his last Roman visit, between 1775 and 1779. The present drawing is still on its original light blue mount, which is numbered 63 in pen and ink at the bottom left corner.

1. See Giacomo Quarenghi, exhib. cat., Bergamo, Palazzo della Ragione, 1994, no. 234, illus.