#Imaginary prisons prints series#

His tomb was designed by Giuseppi Angelini.Įven though the social structure by an aristocracy remained rigid and oppressive, Venice revived through the Grand Tour as the center of intellectual and international exchange in the eighteenth century. He died in Rome in 1778 after a long illness, and was buried in the church he had helped restore, Santa Maria del Priorato. In 1776, he created his best known work as a 'restorer' of ancient sculpture, the Piranesi Vase, and in 1777–78 he published Avanzi degli Edifici di Pesto (Remains of the Edifices of Paestum).

#Imaginary prisons prints series#

In 1769, his publication of a series of ingenious and sometimes bizarre designs for chimneypieces, as well as an original range of furniture pieces, established his place as a versatile and resourceful designer. In 1767, he was made a knight of the Golden Spur, which enabled him to sign himself 'Cav Piranesi'. He combined Classical architectural elements, trophies and escutcheons with his own particular imaginative genius for the design of the facade of the church and the walls of the adjacent Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta. In 1764, one of the Pope's nephews, Cardinal Rezzonico, appointed him to start his only architectural work, the restoration of the church of Santa Maria del Priorato in the Villa of the Knights of Malta, on Rome's Aventine Hill. The following year he was commissioned by Pope Clement XIII to restore the choir of San Giovanni in Laterano, but the work did not materialize. In 1762, the Campo Marzio dell'antica Roma collection of engravings was printed. In 1761, he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca and opened a printing house of his own. In the meantime Piranesi devoted himself to the measurement of many of the ancient buildings: this led to the publication of Le Antichità Romane de' tempo della prima Repubblica e dei primi imperatori ('Roman Antiquities of the Time of the First Republic and the First Emperors'). In 1748–1774, he created an important series of vedute of the city which established his fame. He then returned to Rome, where he opened a workshop in Via del Corso.

It was Tiepolo who expanded the restrictive conventions of reproductive, topographical and antiquarian engravings. According to Legrand, Vasi told Piranesi that 'you are too much of a painter, my friend, to be an engraver.'Īfter his studies with Vasi, he collaborated with pupils of the French Academy in Rome to produce a series of vedute (views) of the city his first work was Prima parte di Architettura e Prospettive (1743), followed in 1745 by Varie Vedute di Roma Antica e Moderna.įrom 1743 to 1747, he was mainly in Venice where, according to some sources, he often visited Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, a leading artist in Venice. Giuseppe Vasi found Piranesi's talent was much greater than that of a mere engraver. He resided in the Palazzo Venezia and studied under Giuseppe Vasi, who introduced him to the art of etching and engraving of the city and its monuments. His brother Andrea introduced him to Latin literature and ancient Greco-Roman civilization, and later he was apprenticed under his uncle, Matteo Lucchesi, who was a leading architect in Magistrato delle Acque, the state organization responsible for engineering and restoring historical buildings.įrom 1740, he had an opportunity to work in Rome as a draughtsman for Marco Foscarini, the Venetian ambassador of the new Pope Benedict XIV. Piranesi was born in Venice, in the parish of S. He was the father of Francesco Piranesi, Laura Piranesi and Pietro Piranesi. Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi ( Italian pronunciation: also known as simply Piranesi 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric 'prisons' ( Carceri d'invenzione). Le Carceri d'Invenzione and etchings of Rome