Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2022

2025

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Drawing, Study for Plate 39 (nos. 204-217) in "Designs for Various Ornaments"

This is a Drawing. It was created by Michel Angelo Pergolesi.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from The Morgan Library & Museum as part of Mr. Pergolesi's Curious Things.

It is dated 1776–1777. Its medium is pen and black ink, pen and brown ink, graphite, rectangle of laid paper and brown tracing paper circle adhered to laid paper support. red chalk on verso of sheet. lined overall.. It is a part of the department.


When Pergolesi set out to reproduce his watercolor drawings in print, he began the process using a surprisingly idiosyncratic method. Rather than drafting new studies, he took the small sketches upon which he had already drawn his preliminary designs—the bits of paper from his ornament scrapbook—and rearranged them in a collage. He then reworked the drawings in pen and graphite, adding new details and dense borders. The resulting ornament prints are still closely related to the Cooper Hewitt watercolors but tend to be much more elaborate.

It is credited Morgan Library & Museum, New York.

Its dimensions are

Mat: 58.4 × 45.7 cm (23 × 18 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Mr. Pergolesi's Curious Things.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-5.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318806809/ |title=Drawing, Study for Plate 39 (nos. 204-217) in "Designs for Various Ornaments" |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=4 April 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>