Past Exhibitions – Piranesi

The Meadows Museum and the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in the United States are pleased to present the exhibit Piranesi: A View of the Artist through the Collection of Engravings of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos.

In addition to the etched portrait of Piranesi executed in 1750 by Felipe Polanzani, the exhibit is comprised of pieces from the collection of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia. The exhibit opens with ten engravings selected from Piranesi’s most famous work, the 1760-1761 edition of Carceri d’invenzione (Imaginary Prisons).

Four prints from Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome) are exhibited. Besides the Carceri, these prints constitute the artist’s finest work. In them, Piranesi best displays his painterly skill as well as his love for the city where he spent the greater part of his life. It is also in this series, composed of 135 large plates, that he left the greatest testimony to his skill as a master of etching. Begun in 1748, this work occupied Piranesi for thirty years until 1778, the year of his death.

Also exhibited are eight prints from Le antichità romane (Roman Antiquities), a four-volume work published in 1756. This work is the result of Piranesi’s constant studies of the monuments of Rome and its surrounding area.

This exhibition was organized by the Generalitat Valenciana.