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

• 

  Frontispiece to the fourth volume of the edition: Monumental structure on Tiber river (imaginary depiction).

• 

  The monument of Castel Sant'Angelo or Mausoleum of Hadrian, Rome.

• 

  Plan of Castel Sant'Angelo or Mausoleum of Hadrian, Rome.

• 

  View of the foundations of Castel Sant'Angelo or Mausoleum of Hadrian, Rome.

• 

  Section and architectural features of the foundations of Castel Sant'Angelo or Mausoleum of Hadrian, Rome.

• 

  Entrance to the upper level of Castel Sant'Angelo or Mausoleum of Hadrian, Rome.

• 

  Plan of the remains of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, today part of Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome.

• 

  Longitudinal section of the bridge of Sant'Angelo and the Mausoleum of Hadrian, Rome.

• 

  Section of one of the arches of Sant'Angelo bridge, Rome.

• 

  View of Sant'Angelo bridge, Rome.

• 

  Remains of Nero's bridge (Ponte Neroniano), Rome.

• 

  Plan of the bridges Fabricius and Cestius, Rome. Inscriptions in hieroglyphics and Latin.

• 

  Remains of the Roman pavement on Tiber island, where the temple of Aesculapius stood.

• 

  Remains of the bridge of Fabricius (Ponte Fabricio), Rome.

• 

  Roman inscription from Fabricius Bridge. The inscription is repeated across the arches and reads: L . FABRICIVS . C . F . CVR . VIAR | FACIVNDVM . COERAVIT | IDEMQVE | PROBAVIT

• 

  Plan and elevation of the bridge of Fabricius in Rome.

• 

  Section of the bridge of Fabricius in Rome.

• 

  Section of the bridge of Fabricius in Rome.

• 

  View of the bridge of Cestius in Rome.

• 

  Roman inscriptions and plan of part of the bridge of Cestius in Rome.

• 

  Side view and architectural features of the bridge of Cestius in Rome.

• 

  Vertical section of the arch of the bridge of Cestius in Rome.

• 

  Plan and reconstruction of the remains of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

  Plan of the remains of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

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

• 

  Theatre of Marcellus, Rome.

• 

  Section of one of the banks at the theatre of Marcellus, Rome.

• 

  Section of one of the banks at the theatre of Marcellus, Rome.

• 

  Transverse section of one of the lower banks at the theatre of Marcellus, Rome.

• 

  View of the remains of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

  Plan, reconstruction and architectural features of the Doric columns at the exterior of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

  Reconstruction and architectural features (entablature, triglyphs and guttae) of the Doric columns at the exterior of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

  Reconstruction and architectural features (entablature, triglyphs and guttae) of the Doric columns at the exterior of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

  Reconstruction and architectural features (entablature, triglyphs and guttae) of the Ionic columns of the second level of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

  Reconstruction and architectural features (entablature, triglyphs and guttae) of the Ionic columns of the second level of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

  Reconstruction and architectural features (entablature, triglyphs and guttae) of the Ionic columns of the second level of the theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

• 

  1. Plan of the theatre of Pompey in Rome. 2. Reconstruction of the stairway leading to the banks.

• 

  Portico of Octavia, Rome: Elevation, plan and reconstruction of the main entrance.

• 

  Portico of Octavia, Rome: Elevation, plan and architectural features of the main entrance.

• 

  Portico of Octavia, Rome: Section and architectural features of the main entrance.

• 

  Portico of Octavia, Rome: Architectural features of the main entrance.

• 

  Portico of Octavia, Rome: Architectural features of the main entrance (elevation and celing plan of anta, Ionic column).

• 

  Portico of Octavia, Rome: Architectural features of the main entrance (entablature and Ionic column).

• 

  Plan of the temple of Jupiter Stator, around which the Portico of Octavia was built.

• 

  Reconstruction of the temple of Jupiter Stator, around which the Portico of Octavia was built. Longitudinal section.

• 

  Temple of Jupiter Stator, Rome: View and celing plan of Corinthian column capital. Lower left: Part of the entablature at the corner. Upper right: Column base.

• 

  Remains of the Porticus Philippi around the temple of Hercules and the Muses, Rome.

• 

  Plan of Saepta Julia and the surrounding portico.

• 

  Plan and architectural features of the remains of the Aemilius Portico at the Roman forum of Rome.

• 

  Plan and reconstruction of the temple of Portunus, formerly called temple of Fortuna Virilis, Rome.

• 

  Lateral section and longitudinal section of the temple of Portunus, formerly called temple of Fortuna Virilis, Rome.

• 

  Drawing of helix and details of Ionic column base from the temple of Portunus, formerly called temple of Fortuna Virilis, Rome.

• 

  Reconstruction of entablature corner and details of Ionic column from the temple of Portunus, formerly called temple of Fortuna Virilis, Rome.

• 

  Elevation, reconstruction and plan of arches at the Divo Claudio temple complex, Rome.

• 

  Vertical section of arch at the Divo Claudio temple complex, Rome.

• 

  Architectural features of the portico of the Divo Claudio temple complex, Rome.

• 

  Architectural features of the portico of the Divo Claudio temple complex, Rome.

• 

  Inscriptions and remains of Roman college near Porta Maggiore, Rome.