Pictured above: Giovanni Battista Piranesi: A View of Roman Churches, 1762; National Gallery in Prague.
Giovanni Battista (also Giambattista) Piranesi (4 October 1720, Mogliano, Venice – 9 November 1778, Rome) was a major Italian artist famous for his engravings of ancient remains and fantastic vedute (views) from the series “Prisons” (Carceri d’invenzione or “Imaginary Prisons”).
His brother Andrea introduced him to ancient art, and later he studied architecture under his uncle Matteo Lucchesi.
From 1740, he lived in Rome where he studied under Guiseppe Vasi, who introduced him to the art of engraving and etching. He collaborated with him and other students to produce a series of vedute (views) of the ancient Rome. He adopted this motif and, after several years, created his own views of Rome which made him famous. His fame was further boosted by a series of sixteen prints of fictitious prisons situated in enormous subterranean vaults with numerous staircases and mighty machines. These almost Kafkaesque visions influenced Romanticism and Surrealism.
In 1763, he rejected Pope Clement XIII’s offer to restore a local cathedral. Instead, he started his own career as an independent architect in 1764. His works included the restoration of the church of Santa Maria del Priorato in Rome, where he was buried after his death. In 1767, he was knighted, which enabled him to use the title “Cavaliere” before his name. Piranesi died after a long illness in 1778.
During his life, he created about two thousand prints with vedute (views) of partially fictitious remains of the ancient Rome and a considerable number of graphic reproductions of stone vases, tombs, mantelpieces and various architectural ornaments.
Source: Czech Republic Post
Released December 23rd, 2013
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