Little is known about the Italian artist Michel Angelo Pergolesi. He lived during the 18th century and was inspired by the English neoclassical architect Robert Adam, who had studied in Rome. Pergolesi was interested in the ornamental and created decorative symmetries out of sphinxes, urns, sinuous gryphons, bows, and classical torches. In the early 1760s, he brought his neoclassical idiom to London and thrilled the English aristocracy. Pergolesi’s brilliantly hued watercolors, all from Cooper Hewitt’s collection, comprise this exhibition. —Elena Clavarino