The Mind and Art of Giovanni Battista: Piranesi

About this book

Piranesi has a powerful appeal for our time. His brilliance as a graphic artist his transformation of the European vision of Classical antiquity and his themes of fantasy have been the focus of considerable study in recent years. But though these aspects are important for an appreciation of Piranesis visual significance they have tended to obscure other factors essential for a complete understanding of his unique achievement. In this copiously illustrated study John Wilton-Ely one of the worlds foremost authorities on Piranesi offers a full reappraisal of the complex personality of an astonishingly versatile artist. His book covers every aspect of Piranesis life and work emphasizing especially his importance as a pioneer of Roman archaeology the high quality of his technical illustrations and his role in the great Graeco-Roman debate of the 1760s. The author brings to life the Enlightenment world of the artists ideas fundamentally bound up with the birth of Neo-Classicism and the search for an appropriately modern form of expression; and he shows the practical and influential form taken by these ideas in Piranesis architectural projects his designs for furniture and decorative schemes and his imaginative restoration of antiquities.