Design for lower section of the high altar of Santa Maria del Priorato

While another drawing at the Morgan (1952.26) is a quick first sketch for the high altar of the church, which was further refined in a drawing at the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (HdZ 633), this careful study shows the lower part of the altar more or less as it was executed. Nonetheless, the black chalk underdrawing, ruled and measured lines, and a few elements that differ from the final monument indicate that it is indeed Piranesi's preparatory drawing and not a later record. The design lacks the figural group of St. Basil atop the globe, which constitutes the upper part of the altar. Piranesi, never primarily a figural artist, may have left the final form of that group to be executed by the sculptor Tommaso Righi.