Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Giovanni Battista (also Giambattista) Piranesi (4th October 1720 in Mogliano Veneto (near Treviso) - 9th November 1778 in Rome) was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" {Carceri d'Invenzione).

Related Topics:
4th October - 1720 - Treviso - 9th November - 1778 - Artist - Etching - Rome

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Piranesi studied his art in Rome, where the remains of that city kindled his enthusiasm and demanded portrayal. His hand faithfully imitated the actual remains of a fabric; his invention, catching the design of the original architect, supplied the missing parts; his skill introduced groups of vases, altars, tombs; and his broad and scientific distribution of light and shade completed the picture, and threw a striking effect over the whole. He executed one engraving after another with much brilliancy; and, as the work went on, the zeal of the artist only waxed stronger. In course of time he found it necessary to call in the aid of all his children, and of several pupils. He did not, in fact, slacken in his exertions till his death in 1778.

Related Topics:
Remains - Design of the original architect

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Piranesi's son and coadjutor, Francesco, collected and preserved his plates, in which the freer lines of the etching-needle largely supplemented the severity of burin work. Twenty nine folio volumes containing about 2000 prints appeared in Paris (1835 - 1837).

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His reproductions of real and recreated Roman ruins were a strong influence in Neoclassicism.

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