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Untitled

Giovanni Battista Cipriani

1777

watercolor

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Romanticism 18th Century

Dominant colour

Untitled is a 1777 watercolor by Giovanni Battista Cipriani, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: Giovanni Battista Cipriani
When & what style?: 1777 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

About this work

You see a watercolor plan for a theater stage’s front entrance. It shows two carved panels on either side of the arch. A sad draped woman leans on a column with a dagger and garland below. Cipriani designed this for London’s Covent Garden Theatre in 1777. The woman looks lonely but grand, like a myth from ancient Rome or Greece. Cherubs at her feet add a soft touch. Notice how the artist uses fine lines to shade the folds in her robe. If you like this style, look up Cipriani, Giovanni Battista.

The story of this work

Overview

A watercolour drawing by Giovanni Battista Cipriani from 1777 presents a design for the Covent Garden Theatre’s proscenium arch in London. The frontispiece features two neoclassical sculptural panels flanking a plain grey central space, each depicting draped female figures accompanied by cherubs—one resting on a garlanded plinth with a crossed dagger motif, the other carrying a fish-shaped vessel and a spear. Above, garlands of flowers and cherubs, some with horns, frame a Latin inscription at the top. The composition balances classical motifs with decorative ornamentation.

Read the full account in the museum source.