

They may be seen in two states: the first more freely drawn and lightly etched, the final one (to which this illustration belongs) reworked with deep, dark lines and more ominous interiors. They were reissued about sixteen years later.
#Piranesi prisons series
Piranesi was twenty-two when he composed his sixteen fantasies. From the series The Imaginary Prisons (Le Carceri dInvenzione) - Giovanni Battista Piranesi we deliver as art print on canvas, poster, plate or finest hand. De Quincey never saw Piranesi's plates, but obviously was very moved by the verbal description of them given by his friend, the poet and essayist Coleridge. A famous description comes from De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. It is believed that during his residence in Venice he also knew and studied the etchings of Tiepolo.Ĭertainly Piranesi's most often discussed prints are in his etched Prison series, the Carceri d'Innenzione. From Giuseppe Vasi he had learned etching and engraving, and most of his plates are a mixture of these two techniques. 12 prints of the facsimilie edition published by the Club International de. In 1831 Francesco Piranesi did, however, publish an account of his father's career, part of which reads: "In an age of frivolities, he boldly and singlehanded dared to strike out for himself on a new road to fame: and in dedicating his talent to the recording and illustrating from ancient writers the records of former times, he met with a success as great as it deserved, combining, as he did, all that was beautiful in art with all that was interesting in the remains of antiquity."īorn in Venice, Piranesi yearned for Rome, and there he lived and worked most of his lifetime, dedicating himself to studying, measuring, and drawing its architectural treasures. Carceri dInvenzione, Les Prisons Imaginaires de Gian-Battista Piranesi. His two sons knew this manuscript and, with additions based on their recollections, prepared their own version, which was submitted to an English publisher.
#Piranesi prisons full
Giovanni Battista Piranesi not only produced an incredible number of etchings and engravings, but is known to have written an autobiography which was reputedly as full of swashbuckling incidents as that of Benvenuto Cellini.
