Picked up an oversized folio put out in 1973 reproducing a series of etching by Giovani Battista Piranesi. They depict a series of giant imaginary prisons. They are at once loose, layered, and complex, exhibiting a style not at all common in mid 18th century etching. Beyond this a quick read through the essay which begins the book shows Piranesi himself to be a somewhat tragic figure, not in any grand way, but rather in that he was unknown in his lifetime and to go a step further unfulfilled as well. You see even though these etchings of his are unmistakably beautiful Piranesi himself actually wanted to be an architect, a wish which, aside from a couple small commissions in the mid 1760’s completely eluded him. It didn’t help that the imaginary spaces he created were completely unbuildable, nor did it help that the lengthy original title of this series (which was etched in the frontispiece) was both grammatically incorrect and misspelled. Ah well, the guy might have died an unfulfilled wannabe architect but his etchings are quite something.
The Prisons, by Giovani Battista Piranesi
Ah well, that’s what I get for not paying proper attention to the comings and goings of my esteemed peers. No big deal, though I do hate to contribute the internet’s redundancy. Thanks for the heads up PK.
I fancy that Escher may have been a fan of Piranesi; squint, and some of his even more impossible architectures peek out at you.
Recently I saw Charlie Rose interview Sydney Pollack, who just made ‘Sketches of Frank Gehry’. Rose ambushed Pollack wonderfully with a clip of himself at Bilbao at the opening of the Guggenheim art museum, walking through the building with Gehry and Philip Johnson. He asked Johnson what he thought of the Bilbao Guggenheim. Johnson replied that it was like a cathedral, not about thinking but about feeling. And how, Charlie Rose asked Philip Johnson, does it make you feel? Johnson said nothing, he simply started bawling his eyes out.
Monsieur H linked us up with the full set of Piranesi etchings recently on Mefi and I’m glad to see the site is actually working at present. I’ll take my Piranesi whichever way I can get him. The previous images online weren’t so hot.
Great stuff.