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Interior of St. Peter's Illuminated
Louis Jean Desprez1776-1784
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York, United States
Dramatic view of interior of Saint Peter's in Rome on Holy Thursday. View is from the right transept looking into the nave in which a large cross is suspended from the dome, composed of several hundred candles. Beneath the cross in the nave stand numerous figures; others stand and kneel in the transept. The illumination from the cross casts areas of light as well as dark shadows on the vaulted ceilings and walls.
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Details
- Title: Interior of St. Peter's Illuminated
- Creator: Louis-Jean Desprez
- Creator Lifespan: 1743/1804
- Date Created: 1776-1784
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: Bequest of Joseph F. McCrindle
- Medium: Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, white gouache on dark cream laid paper
- Provenance: J. A. Boussac (Lugt suppl. 729b), sale Paris, September 10, 1926 (as A. C. G. Lemonnier); Joseph Fuller Feder, New York City
- Markings: J. A. Boussac stamp (Lugt supp 729b), in black, lower right corner
- Inscribed: Inscribed in pen and brown ink across lower mount: Lemonnier del. a Roma 1777, Illumination de la croix dans St...(Pierre?) de Rom/le jeudi ... le vendradie...
- Exhibitions: Princeton, NJ-The Art Museum, Princeton University, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Joseph F. McCrindle (12 October -8 December 1991) no. 90 [traveled to Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, 25 February-5 April 1992; The Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh, 28 April - 7 June 1992; University of Michigan Museum of Art, September 25-October 1992; Duke Unversity Museum of Art, 6 November -20 December 1992].
- Dimensions: 46.4 x 33.6 cm (18 1/16 x 13 1/8 in.)
- Bibliography: den Broeder, Frederick A. Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Joseph F. McCrindle, exh. cat. (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1991), p. 200, no. 90, p. 201 (illus.).
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