Giovanni Piranesi : A Selection of Drawings

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) was a venetian artist and architect famous for his detailed studies of Roman ruins.

“I need to produce great ideas, and I believe that if I were commissioned to design a new universe, I would be mad enough to undertake it.”

Goethe, who had come to know Rome through Piranesi’s prints, was somewhat disappointed on his first encounter with the real thing.

Piranesi apprenticed himself briefly to Giuseppe Vasi, the foremost producer of the etched views of Rome. Quickly mastering the medium of etching, Piranesi found in it an outlet for all his interests, from designing fantastic complexes of buildings that could exist only in dreams, to reconstructing in painstaking detail the aqueduct system of the ancient Romans.

The knowledge of ancient building methods demonstrated by Piranesi’s archaeological prints allowed him to make a name for himself as an antiquarian.

Etching also provided Piranesi with a livelihood, allowing him to turn one of his favorite activities, drawing the ancient and modern buildings of Rome, into a lucrative source of income.

Piranesi’s willingness to embrace the profession of printmaking was conditioned by his ties to Venice, the only city in eighteenth-century Italy where the greatest artists turned their hands to etching.

The series of labyrinthine prison interiors, the Carceri, was also created soon after Piranesi’s encounter with the lively printmaking scene in Venice. Clearly an inspiration for the modern artist Maurits Cornelis Escher.

Piranesi could hardly refrain from entering into the debate at mid-century over the relative merits of Greek and Roman art.

Piranesi used his knowledge of ancient engineering accomplishments to defend the creative genius of the Romans.

He was not indifferent to the charms of Greek art, nor to that of the Egyptians. Piranesi argued for the complete freedom of the architect or designer to draw on models from every time and place as an inspiration for his own inventions.

I invite you now to draw upon Piranesi for your own inspiration with this collection of 340 selected illustrations.

Book, 354 Pages