A pair of Grand Tour drawings, Italy19th century

Two large Grand Tour drawings, executed around the end of the eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth century, depicting studies of antique objects and furniture from the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Realised in pen, ink and wash on laid paper with the ‘J Honig & Zoonen’ watermark, these two sheets (a third drawing may be available on request) were perhaps intended as souvenirs to meet the great demand from the many European travellers, intellectuals, artists and aristocrats visiting Italy from the mid-eighteenth century onwards to discover the archaeological finds in the Naples region. That said, given their size, it is also likely that they were preparatory studies for a book of engravings summarising the antiquities found in Herculaneum and Pompeii.

In the drawing showing two pieces of furniture, we recognise the three-legged marble table with lion's heads and claws, discovered in Pompeii and now conserved at the Archaeological Museum in Naples. Above the table is a bronze bisellium, a two-seater without a backrest, used by magistrates.

The other drawing shows a number of objects, including a chiselled metal bowl with plant and animal motifs, two beautiful trullae with handles decorated with arabesques and a human head.

Prov: private coll. Madrid
D: 460 x 310 mm