GIAMBATTISTA PIRENESI

(1720-1778)

The Tomb of the Plautii and The Villa Albani are from the Vedute di Roma, a series of one hundred and thirty five plates produced from the late 1740s until the artist's death. In their breadth of ambition and the time over which the series evolved, they chart the development of  his career as an artist, both stylistically and intellectually. The earliest works, such as the Second frontispiece to the Veduta di  Roma: ruin fantasy with statue of Minerva, are in keeping with the ruin compositions of the earlier Prima Parte; these develop through Piranesi’s archaeological researches of the 1750s, wherein the vedute reveal an increasing sense of the histrionic combined with a concurrent broadening of tonal range, achieved through the re-biting of the plates.

The earliest fixed date for the series is 1751 when thirty-four of the plates were published by Bouchard in Le Magnificenze di Roma. It has however been suggested that at least nineteen of the plates were in existence before 1748, Piranesi’s given date of inception. In terms of preliminary drawings, very few survive for these plates, partly because of Piranesi’s own working methods: he tended to use the backs of proofs or any other scrap paper in his studio before discarding it. His technique also relied on a certain spontaneity in his use of drawings and their development into prints. It has been observed that he never finished sketches, relying on red chalk studies, reworked with pen and wash, to secure the design. Piranesi is recorded as saying of his own working method, ‘Can’t you see that if my drawing were finished my plate would become nothing more than a copy while, on the contrary, I create the impression straight onto the copper making an original'. Where drawings do survive for the etchings, such as Preparatory drawing for the veduta ‘The Capitol seen from the side of the central steps’(British Museum, Mus no.1908-6-16-45) Piranesi made a light sketch in black chalk over which tonal colour was registered in red chalk, with emphasis on the areas that were to be strongly etched and touches of sepia indicating the areas of greatest shadow. 

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Prints, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery .

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