Giovanni Battista Piranesi Art

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Born 1720) was born in Mestre, near Venice. Piranesi went to Rome at the age of 20. Here, he became a draftsman for the Venetian ambassador. Battista Piranesi studied with the top artists of the day and in 1745, he decided to settle permanently in Rome. He worked so hard in his artwork to an extent that he managed to develop a highly original and unique etching technique. He became a renowned printmaker, draftsman, art theorist and architect. His large scale art depict the buildings of postclassical and classical Rome and its surrounding area contributed significantly to the fame of Rome and to the classical archaeology’s growth of and to the Neoclassical art movement. He produced bold contrasts of shadow and light and rich textures by means of repeated, intricate bitings of the copper plate. in his lifetime, he created more than 2,000 plates, one of which is titled “Prisons” which carried about 1745 of his finest art prints which depict Baroque ruins or ancient Roman converted into visionary, fantastic dungeons filled with instruments of torture and mysterious scaffolding. his personal expression of the structures’ romantic and dramatic grandeur, His unmatched accuracy of depiction, and his technical mastery made the prints some of the most impressive and original architectural representations to be found in Western art. The framed Giovanni Battista Piranesi art have found their way into many institutions, especially those that are architecture oriented. Piranesi was one of the most important determining influences on the Neoclassicism movement. He received several awards for his outstanding works.