Piranesi: Architecture of the Imagination
TITLE: View of the Grand Cascade at Tivoli
CREDIT: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1766. Views of Rome. Rome, Bouchard, late 1740s-1760; Piranesi, 1760 onwards. Etching on paper. SBMA, Gift of Oscar Rothchild.
TITLE: Large Fantastic Stairway
CREDIT: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, n.d. Pen and ink on tan paper. SBMA, Gift of the Rudolf L. Baumfeld Trust.
TITLE: The Round Tower, Plate III, Imaginary Prisons
CREDIT: Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Rome, Bouchard, 1749-50; Piranesi, 1761. Etching on paper, later state. SBMA, Gift of Ala Story in Honor of Wright Ludington.
TITLE: Imaginary appearance of the ancient Capitol, Plate VII, Part One of Architecture and Perspectives
CAPTION: Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Rome, Fratelli Pagliari, 1743. Etching on paper. SBMA, Gift of Peter Morse.
Piranesi: Architecture of the Imagination, a selection of etchings by Venetian-born printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778), from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s collection is currently on view in the Ridley-Tree Gallery. Piranesi, a printmaker, architect, and antiquarian, produced thousands of printed books and participated in archaeological excavations. Through fantastical sweeping vistas and soaring spaces, Piranesi sought to create an affective experience that would strike awe and admiration into antiquarians and intellectuals around Europe. The awe-inspiring nature of Piranesi’s sublime structures aided in attracting travelers to the Grand Tour, a pilgrimage to see famous classical antiquities in person popular among 18th-century European intellectuals. Piranesi did not draw entirely from the caprices of his imagination, however, but often manipulated real landscapes, represented unreal structures based on existing architecture, or drew from his experience with set design in the theater. Piranesi saw his imaginative structures as a way to argue for the superiority of ancient Rome over all other architectural eras and restore Rome to its former glory.
