Piranesi roman series#

Piranesi used his knowledge of ancient engineering accomplishments to defend the creative genius of the Romans, but devoted even more space to a celebration of the richness and variety of Roman ornament ( 41.71.1.7).

His Delle magnificenza ed architettura de’ Romani of 1761 advanced the view, shared by other scholars, that the Romans had learned not from the Greeks-as British and French scholars had begun to argue-but from the earlier inhabitants of Italy, the Etruscans. Here, too, etching served him well as a means of supporting his arguments. Given his admiration for Rome and his contentious nature, Piranesi could hardly refrain from entering into the debate at mid-century over the relative merits of Greek and Roman art. In these prints, Piranesi explored the possibilities of perspective and spatial illusion while pushing the medium of etching to its limits.

Piranesi roman series#

The series of labyrinthine prison interiors, the Carceri, was also created soon after Piranesi’s encounter with the lively printmaking scene in Venice. Piranesi returned to his native city twice in the mid-1740s, the very years in which Canaletto was producing his luminous etched views of Venice ( 1973.634) and Tiepolo was at work on his novel series of etchings, the Scherzi and the Capricci-long recognized as an inspiration for the sketchy improvisation of Piranesi’s Grotteschi ( 37.45.3). 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. Piranesi’s popular Vedute ( 37.45.3 41.71.1.16 64.521.2 55.567.6 59.570.426), which eclipsed earlier views of Roman landmarks through their dynamic compositions, bold lighting effects, and dramatic presentation, shaped European conceptions to such an extent that Goethe, who had come to know Rome through Piranesi’s prints, was somewhat disappointed on his first encounter with the real thing. By 1747, Piranesi had begun the work for which he is best known, the Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), and he continued to produce plates for the series until the year of his death in 1778. 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. The knowledge of ancient building methods demonstrated by Piranesi’s archaeological prints allowed him to make a name for himself as an antiquarian-his Antichità Romane of 1756 ( 41.71.1.3 41.71.1.3) won him election to the Society of Antiquarians of London. 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 ( 37.45.3), to reconstructing in painstaking detail the aqueduct system of the ancient Romans. Whether or not Piranesi studied printmaking in Venice, it is certain that soon after his arrival in Rome in 1740, he apprenticed himself briefly to Giuseppe Vasi, the foremost producer of the etched views of Rome that supplied pilgrims, scholars, artists, and tourists with a lasting souvenir of their visit. Although he had limited success in attracting architectural commissions, this diverse training served him well in the profession that would establish his fame.

Piranesi also received a thorough background in perspective construction and stage design. The son of a stonemason and master builder, he received practical training in structural and hydraulic engineering from a maternal uncle who was employed by the Venetian waterworks, while his brother, a Carthusian monk, fired the aspiring architect with enthusiasm for the history and achievements of the ancient Romans. One of the greatest printmakers of the eighteenth century, Piranesi always considered himself an architect. This statement by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, reported by one of his early biographers, in many ways sums up the man whose dreams of antiquity so often surpassed reality, from his earliest etchings of architectural fantasies to the fanciful restorations of ancient remains that he produced at the end of his career. “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.”