Le antichità romane (Roman Antiquites)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, author and engraver
Angelo Rotilj, printer
1756 CE, Rome, Papal States (modern-day Italy)
Etchings on cotton linen rag paper in red Morocco binding
Piranesi was fascinated with making vedute, or views, of ancient Roman architecture. The juxtaposition between his precise architectural studies and his staffage figures, often markedly distorted or off balance, creates a sense of surreal fantasy within a historical frame. The structures of his vedute exist in an expansive layered atmosphere surrounded by figures, objects, flora, and debris. His use of linear and atmospheric perspective, as well as the extreme depth of detail in his etchings, draws the viewer’s eye deeper into the scene. Piranesi depicts humanity struggling with poverty, lameness, and apparent drunkenness. Such visible flaws are echoed in the decay of the ruins. These crumbling structures relate to a familiar trope of Early Modern literature, where the ruins of Rome acted as a metaphor for the imperfection and transience of human existence.
Bradford Davis