A design for a Trompe l'oeil ceiling, attributed to Giuseppe Barberi (Rome 1746-1809)


Giuseppe Barberi trained as a silversmith and later as an architect. His work mostly consisted of decorative projects rather than architecture. He produced fantastic stage designs as well as drawings for furniture and the applied arts. With Piranesi he founded an academy of architecture and perspective. There is a representative collection of his drawings in the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York.

Pen and ink and water colour

300 mm x 475 mm