The Italian architect and engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) was born in Venice. He started taking drawing lessons at an early age, and was primarily influenced by the work of architect Palladio. At the age of eighteen years old, he moved to Rome with an ardent desire to know the Eternal City and worked as draughtsman at the service of the Venetian embassy to the Vatican. In Rome, Piranesi studied engraving under Giuseppe Vasi, with whom he later clashed. An impulsive, ambitious and prolific artist, Piranesi worked in harmony with his time, as he was always drawn to and cultivated the dramatic, the inspired and the spectacular.

As with the work of French architect David Leroy (1724-1803), the technique and art of Piranesi's drawings aim to make an impact the viewer. A strong impression, which it is the artist's duty to convey, is deemed more important than precision in representation. Piranesi is among the most dynamic exponents of Neoclassicism; at the same time, he belongs to early Romanticism as well, as the remains of classical civilisations become the cause of poetic emotion.

Piranesi also visited Naples, where he depicted the local antiquities with passion and admiration, and created several copper moulds of his works. He returned to Venice in 1744, where he refined his engraving skills. It was there that he published his first major work “Carceri di invenzione” (“Fictitious prisons”, 1750, 1761 and 1780). The uncanny as well as evocative spaces of the prisons invented by Piranesi disturb the viewer and constitute a lasting influence on visual artists, writers and architects from his time to the present.

Later in his life, Piranesi returned to Rome, where he worked mainly as an engraver and painter and less as an architect. His “Monuments of Rome”, made a great impact on his contemporaries. In contrast to the contemporary intellectual atmosphere, and while scholars (such as Winkelmann, Ramsey, Stuart, Revett) direct their attention to Greece, which they see as the primary inspiration of Roman architecture, Piranesi sustained that the Etruscans, a people older than the Greeks, were the first to achieve aesthetic perfection. His ideas provoked a debate among European scholars, and opened new pathways to the study of ancient legacy.

The two thousand copper engravings drawn and etched by Piranesi in his lifetime were published posthumously in Paris by his sons, in a monumental edition (1835-1837).

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

• 

  Title page of the first volume.

• 

  Inscriptions of the Praetorian Guard.

• 

  Fragment of Roman inscription from Rome.

• 

  Map of Rome. To the right and left of the map, marble fragments with views and plans of the city's monuments.

• 

  Fragments of the marble plan of ancient Rome called Forma Urbis Romae, or Severan Marle plan, created under Septimius Severus.

• 

  Fragments of the marble plan of ancient Rome called Forma Urbis Romae, or Severan Marle plan, created under Septimius Severus.

• 

  Fragments of the marble plan of ancient Rome called Forma Urbis Romae, or Severan Marle plan, created under Septimius Severus.

• 

  Block of tufa, a construction material widely used in ancient Rome.

• 

  Ampitheatre Castrense, Rome.

• 

  Architectural details of Anio Vetus aqueduct, Rome.

• 

  Reconstruction, plan and architectural details of Porta San Lorenzo at the Aurelian Walls, Rome.

• 

  Ceiling plan, partial reconstruction and plan of Aqua Julia aqueduct, Rome.

• 

  Plan and details of Muro Torto, Rome.

• 

  View of Aqua Alsietina aqueduct, Rome.

• 

  View of Acqua Vergine aqueduct, Rome.

• 

  The column of Marcus Aurelius at Piazza Colonna, Rome.

• 

  View of the remains of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina.

• 

  Corinthian columns, Rome.

• 

  View of the Pantheon of Rome.

• 

  The pronaos of the Pantheon of Rome.

• 

  Interior of the Pantheon of Rome.

• 

  Remains of Roman walls, Rome.

• 

  Roman nymphaeum at the temple of Esquilino, Rome, also nown as the temple of Minerva Medica.

• 

  Remains of Aqua Claudia aqueduct near Porta Maggiore (on the right), Rome.

• 

  View of Porta Maggiore, Rome, with plan of the junction of Aqua Claudia and Anio Novo aqueducts. The inscription reads: TI. CLAUDIUS DRUSI F. CAISAR AUGUSTUS GERMANICUS PONTIF. MAXIM., TRIBUNICIA POTESTATE XII, COS. V, IMPERATOR XXVII, PATER PATRIAE, AQUAS CLAUDIAM EX FONTIBUS, QUI VOCABANTUR CAERULEUS ET CURTIUS A MILLIARIO XXXXV, ITEM ANIENEM NOVAM A MILLIARIO LXII SUA IMPENSA IN URBEM PERDUCENDAS CURAVIT...

• 

  View of the temple of Speranza Vecchia, Rome.

• 

  Tomb chamber, Rome (imaginary depiction).

• 

  The Arch of Drusus, Rome. In fact, the arch belongs to the Antonine aqueduct, which crossed the Appian Way.

• 

  Section and details of the aqueduct of Caracalla.

• 

  View of the remains of the portico of M. A. Lepidus.

• 

  View of the Ponte Rotto or Pons Aemilius, Rome.

• 

  View of the remains of the house of Nicolo di Rienzo, or house of the Crescenzi family (11th century).

• 

  One of the arches of Janus Quadrifons in the Forum Boarium.

• 

  Remains of the temple of Hercules Olivarius, Rome.

• 

  Wall along the bank of the Tiber, part of the Cloaca Maxima, ancient Rome's sewage system.

• 

  Roman remains on the slopes of the Aventine hill.

• 

  Remains of Nero's aqueduct (an extension of Aqua Claudia) on the Aventine hill, Rome.

• 

  Roman remains on the Caelian hill.

• 

  Remains of the arches of Nero (extension of Aqua Claudia) on the Caelian hill, Rome.

• 

  View of the Arch of Dolabella and Silanus.

• 

  Interior view of S. Stefano Rotondo basilica on Caelian hill, Rome.

• 

  View and plan of the Nymphaeum of Alexander or Trofei di Mario, Rome.

• 

  Arch of Gallienus, Rome.

• 

  Interior of the Thermae of Titus, Rome.

• 

  Plan of the Thermae of Titus, Rome.

• 

  Remains of the Thermae of Titus, Rome.

• 

  View of the Thermae of Diocletian, Rome.

• 

  Part of the exedra of Trajan's forum, Rome.

• 

  Trajan's column in the Forum of Trajan, Rome.

• 

  Remains of the Forum of Nerva, Rome.

• 

  Remains of the Forum of Nerva, Rome.

• 

  Side view of the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, built on the site of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina in Rome.

• 

  Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome.

• 

  Remains of the temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum, Rome.

• 

  Remains of temple in Rome. The engraver identifies the site as the temple of Jupiter Tonans.

• 

  Remains of the temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum, Rome.

• 

  Remains of Domus Aurea, Nero's Palace, Rome.

• 

  Arch of Titus, Rome.

• 

  Remains of Aqua Claudia aqueduct on Palatine Hill, Rome.

• 

  Remains of the palace of Augustus on Palatine Hill, Rome.

• 

  Remains of the Nero's theatre on the Palatine Hill, Rome.

• 

  Remains of Domus Aurea, Nero's Palace, Rome.

• 

  Arch of Constantine, Rome.

• 

  Colosseum, Rome.

• 

  Interior of the Colosseum, 18th century.

• 

  Topographic map of ancient Rome.

• 

  Plan of the barracks of the Praetorian guard, Rome.

• 

  Plan and section of the Thermae of Caracalla, Rome.

• 

  Plan of the nymphaeum of Nero at the Domus Aurea, the emperor's palace.

• 

  Plan of the thermae of Diocletian in Rome.

• 

  Topographic map of the Roman Forum and adjacent area, in antiquity.

• 

  Topographic map of the Capitoline Hill.