Giovanni Battista Piranesi : the complete etchings Gesamtkatalog der Radierungen catalogue raisonné des eaux-fortes

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Bibliographic Information

Giovanni Battista Piranesi : the complete etchings = Gesamtkatalog der Radierungen = catalogue raisonné des eaux-fortes

Luigi Ficacci, Istituto nazionale per la grafica

Taschen, c2011

  • : [set]
  • vol. 1
  • vol. 2

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Note

Originally published: Taschen, 2000

Text in English, German and French

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

One the greatest architectural artists of all time, and certainly the most famous copper engraver of the 18th century, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) is most known for his terrifyingly original series of etchings of labyrinthine and megalomaniac prisons, "Carceri d'Invenzione". In his own day, he was most celebrated for his "Vedute", 137 etchings of ancient and modern Rome; so renowned were these startling and dramatic chiaroscuro images, imbued with Piranesi's romantic feeling for archaeological ruins, that they formed the mental picture of Rome for generations after. Indeed, Piranesi could be said to have shaped a whole strain of contemporary architecture, as well as the wider visualization of antiquity itself. In our time, he has had a direct influence on writers such as Borges and Kafka and on filmmakers such as Terry Gilliam and Peter Greenaway. Anyone who contemplates Piranesi's etchings will confront the existential nightmare of human existence and its infinite mysteries.

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