La chapelle Pauline illuminée, dans le Vatican, pendant la celebration de la messe (The Pauline Chapel Illuminated, from the Vatican, During the Celebration of the Mass)

Francesco Piranesi

1756–1810

Louis-Jean Desprez

1743–1804

La chapelle Pauline illuminée, dans le Vatican, pendant la celebration de la messe (The Pauline Chapel Illuminated, from the Vatican, During the Celebration of the Mass), 1787

Where object was made: Italy

Material/technique: etching; laid paper

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 696 x 477 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 910 x 610 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 27 3/8 x 18 3/4 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 35 13/16 x 24 1/2 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 40 x 32 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund

Accession number: 1999.0192.01

Not on display

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Exhibition Label:
"Empire of Things," 2013, Kate Meyer
Piranesi’s operatic, candle-lit interior shows Pope Pius VI leading an elaborate Counter-Reformation ritual. This ritual, the Forty Hours Devotion (Quarantore), involves a complex temporary structure that serves as a platform for a monstrance, a reliquary-like device designed especially for the display and veneration of the consecrated host. On ten occasions, Francesco Piranesi (son of Giovanni Battista Piranesi) collaborated with Jean-Louis Desprez to produce works for collectors. Piranesi would lightly etch one of Desprez’s compositions in outline. Desprez then hand-colored these ten impressions. With the hand-colored impressions in hand, Piranesi completed the etched composition, as seen here (the Spencer owns a hand-colored impression in addition to the finished etching exhibited here). These collaborations resulted in a “limited edition” of hand-colored impressions and a larger edition of pure etching. In effect, the artists created a sense of rarity for their collecting public.