View of the Arch of Titus, from Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome)
1750/59
Medium
Etching in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 38.1 × 61.5 cm (15 × 24 1/4 in.); Plate: 40.6 × 62 cm (16 × 24 7/16 in.); Sheet: 55.6 × 78.2 cm (21 15/16 × 30 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
64621
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s grand-scale prints are considered some of the most remarkable etchings of the 18th century. In over a thousand plates, he masterfully incorporated a broad range of lines, from delicately fine details to deep incisions that emboss the paper when printed. A self-proclaimed architect, the Venetian-born Piranesi moved to Rome when he was twenty and made a profitable livelihood selling his etchings of the city’s landmarks to tourists. He captured the coexistence of moder...
About the Artist
Giovanni Battista Piranesi · 1720–1778
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) was an Italian printmaker, architect, and antiquarian whose visionary etchings of Rome and imaginary prisons revolutionized architectural representation and profoundly influenced both Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Piranesi stands as one of the most important printmakers of the eighteenth century, fundamentally shaping European perceptions of ancient Rome an...