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Piranesi: The Etchings
The great 18th century architectural artist and master engraver "Piranesi was as savage as Salvator Rosa, fierce as Michelangelo, and exuberant as Rubens… he has imagined scenes that would startle geometry and exhaust the Indies to realize." --Horace Walpole
One the greatest architectural artists of all time, and certainly the most famous copper engraver of the 18th century, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) is most known for his terrifyingly original series of etchings of labyrinthine and megalomaniac prisons, Carceri d'Invenzione. In his own day, he was most celebrated for his Vedute, 137 etchings of ancient and modern Rome; so renowned were these startling and dramatic chiaroscuro images, imbued with Piranesi's romantic feeling for archaeological ruins, that they formed the mental picture of Rome for generations after. Indeed, Piranesi could be said to have shaped a whole strain of contemporary architecture, as well as the wider visualization of antiquity itself. In our time, he has had a direct influence on writers such as Borges and Kafka and on filmmakers such as Terry Gilliam and Peter Greenaway. Anyone who contemplates Piranesi's etchings will confront the existential nightmare of human existence and its infinite mysteries…
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 3, 2022
Enjoyed this as a companion to the ekphrasistic novel by Susanna Clarke. Very comprehensive compilation of the artist's etchings
June 13, 2022
Totally assessed with this book and utterly unable to decipher it.
January 17, 2024
"His prints "showed" things in an unprecedented and unimaginable way. Whatever the subject, they always revealed something new. They could be original architectural creations or caprices of the imagination, or breathtakingly multiform decorative models. Or they could be illustrations of ancient relics, techniques, and tools, sometimes entirely unknown, but always illustrated with such precision and force as to obscure any previous reproduction." (p. 8) [born 1720]
"This is why, more importantly than the transitory impact of Piranesi's theoretical positions in the context of contemporary European erudition, and more so even than the quality of his original architectural creations or furnishings, it was his imaginative power of suggestion that would permanently alter how people emotionally perceived the ancient world and the city that, in Piranesi's opinion, best represented it - Rome.
Indeed, the romantic vision of Roman antiquities and Rome itself derived from the visual filter created by Piranesi." (p. 10)
"...Piranesi had already completed his education [by age twenty] - he had served several different apprenticeships as architect, stage set designer, and etcher - training that was typical for most advanced circles in Venetian culture at the time. It was difficult to find such a repertoire of professional skills in a single individual in Rome at the time..." (p. 11)
"When James Caulfield, Earl of charlemont, a noble Scotsman with a passion for antiquities, appeared on the Roman scene Piranesi thought he had finally found the person who would sponsor printing of the ten years of work that he had been preparing. And thus the Antichit@agrave; Romane were publish in four volumes in 1756... Charlemont...had imagined associating his name with a simple volume of views of Roman tomb chambers. Piranesi reacted with epic rage, eliminating the name of his presume benefactor from the volume, with a modified title page showing the traces of the erased dedication in imitation of the arch of Septimus Severus, which still attests to the damnatio memoriae inflicted by Caracalla on the memory of his assassinated brother." (p. 27)
"From 1758 until 1769 Piranesi was able to count on the enthusiastic patronage of the new pope, Clement XIII Rezzonico, and his nephews. This was the only time in his life that he had the chance to translate his architectural designs into reality." (p. 35)
[http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmag/a... - "Among those possibly inspired by Piranesi is M.C. Escher, whose “impossible constructions” include lithographs of waterfalls that replenish themselves in an infinite loop and a pair of hands that appear to be drawing each other."]
[http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_E... - "M.C. Escher used Piranesi for his experiments in the construction of spatial labyrinths, which have had some much influence on computer graphics. "]
► Berenice Abbott: Changing New York by Bonnie Yochelson & Berenice Abbott – photography, documentary, new york
► Sketch and Finish: The Journey from Here to There by Milton Glaser – sketching, ideas, process
► The Art of Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki – animation, emergence, research
► Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions by Guillermo del Toro & Marc Zicree – fantasy, nightmares, notebooks
"This is why, more importantly than the transitory impact of Piranesi's theoretical positions in the context of contemporary European erudition, and more so even than the quality of his original architectural creations or furnishings, it was his imaginative power of suggestion that would permanently alter how people emotionally perceived the ancient world and the city that, in Piranesi's opinion, best represented it - Rome.
Indeed, the romantic vision of Roman antiquities and Rome itself derived from the visual filter created by Piranesi." (p. 10)
"...Piranesi had already completed his education [by age twenty] - he had served several different apprenticeships as architect, stage set designer, and etcher - training that was typical for most advanced circles in Venetian culture at the time. It was difficult to find such a repertoire of professional skills in a single individual in Rome at the time..." (p. 11)
"When James Caulfield, Earl of charlemont, a noble Scotsman with a passion for antiquities, appeared on the Roman scene Piranesi thought he had finally found the person who would sponsor printing of the ten years of work that he had been preparing. And thus the Antichit@agrave; Romane were publish in four volumes in 1756... Charlemont...had imagined associating his name with a simple volume of views of Roman tomb chambers. Piranesi reacted with epic rage, eliminating the name of his presume benefactor from the volume, with a modified title page showing the traces of the erased dedication in imitation of the arch of Septimus Severus, which still attests to the damnatio memoriae inflicted by Caracalla on the memory of his assassinated brother." (p. 27)
"From 1758 until 1769 Piranesi was able to count on the enthusiastic patronage of the new pope, Clement XIII Rezzonico, and his nephews. This was the only time in his life that he had the chance to translate his architectural designs into reality." (p. 35)
[http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmag/a... - "Among those possibly inspired by Piranesi is M.C. Escher, whose “impossible constructions” include lithographs of waterfalls that replenish themselves in an infinite loop and a pair of hands that appear to be drawing each other."]
[http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_E... - "M.C. Escher used Piranesi for his experiments in the construction of spatial labyrinths, which have had some much influence on computer graphics. "]
► Berenice Abbott: Changing New York by Bonnie Yochelson & Berenice Abbott – photography, documentary, new york
► Sketch and Finish: The Journey from Here to There by Milton Glaser – sketching, ideas, process
► The Art of Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki – animation, emergence, research
► Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions by Guillermo del Toro & Marc Zicree – fantasy, nightmares, notebooks
November 17, 2013
For many years I've been looking for a decent picture book on Piranesi. There are not many on the market and most are quite pricey. This one is a great compromise. The instruction by Fiacci is quite instructive and not too long. Most importantly, the selection of reproductions is comparably complete, well selected and of good quality. My only complaint is the small size of many reproductions. Piranesi has left a fundamental imprint on today's aesthetic's ideals second only to Winckelmann. Despite this or maybe because of this, he is comparably forgotten today.
December 18, 2008
Another great book to spend hours and hours looking at the drawnings. Great artist, great book
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews