1778 - Art

Art

Painting: Brook Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley, who has been commissioned by the lord mayor of London to depict the grisly scene in which the lord mayor lost his legs at age 14 while swimming in Havana Harbor. Etcher-engraver-architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi dies at Rome November 9 at age 58, leaving 135 large-sized copper plates bearing views of ancient and contemporary Roman architectural gems. His son Francesco takes the plates to Paris, where they will be published between 1800 and 1807.