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. 48-83, repr.“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.” 29, Catalogue of the New Acquisitions 1988-89. New York, 1989 1992 Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Roma, Newton Compton, 1989 1989 Piranesi: Rome Recorded (exh. Le vedute di Roma di Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Piranesi: Early Architectural Fantasies, a Catalogue Raisonné of the Etchings. Venezia, 13 - 15 October 1978, Istituto di Storia dell'Arte della Fondazione Giorgio Cini. 'Dating Piranesi's Early 'Vedute di Roma''. The Mind and Art of Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The 'Vedute di Roma' of Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Notes towards a Revision of Hind's Catalogue. Giovanni Battista Piranesi: A Critical Study with a List of His Published Works and Detailed Catalogue of the Prisons and the Views of Rome. Giovanni-Battista Piranesi: Essai de catalogue raisoné de son œuvre.

Marcello Title: Veduta del Romano Campidoglio con Scalinata che va' alla Chiesa d'Araceli / Architettura di Michelangelo Bonarotiįocillon 807 Hind 38 (intermediate between I/V-II/V) Robison (38) B Wilton-Ely 147.ĭedicated by artist to Olivier Hope Baron Henri de Triquetti (1804-1874) Childe De Sartiges Paul Prouté, Paris Purchased by the NMWA, 1989. With address, lower right of center: Si vendono in Roma dai SS.ri Bouchard, e Gravier libraj al Corso presso S. Maria d'Aracoeli Dateįleurs-de-lys in double circle (Robison 34)

Giambattista piranesi campodolio