2023 Partnerships and Events

From Ancient Rome to the Modern Drawing Room:
Mr. Pergolesi's Neoclassical Ornament Designs 

Tuesday, January 25, 10am
Online Lecture with Julia Siemon, Assistant Curator of Drawings, Prints & Graphic Design,
at Cooper Hewitt

Watch the recording of the event below:

 

Very little is known about Michelangelo Pergolesi (d. 1801), an Italian designer, printmaker, and drawing master active in London in the late 18^th century. Nevertheless, it has often been suggested that Pergolesi, a collaborator of Robert Adam, may be the true author of the Neoclassical ornament so characteristic of the Adam style. Under his own name, moreover, Pergolesi produced a popular series of ancient-inspired ornament prints, designs for which constitute a largely uncatalogued volume at the Morgan Library & Museum. This lecture considers the Morgan album together with a group of 70 essentially unknown watercolor drawings by Pergolesi in the collection of Cooper Hewitt; the comparison reveals much about the artist, his antique inspiration, and his surprising working method.

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Recordings for all MDNY 2022 events are managed by Drawing America.
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