← Giovanni Battista Piranesi Giovanni Battista Piranesi — View of a courtyard with a loggia, fountains, statues, and other ornaments (Prospetto d'un regio Cortile nel cui mezzo vi stà una Loggia...), from "Prima Parte di Architettura, e Prospettive"

Giovanni Battista Piranesi — View of a courtyard with a loggia, fountains, statues, and other ornaments (Prospetto d'un regio Cortile nel cui mezzo vi stà una Loggia...), from "Prima Parte di Architettura, e Prospettive"

View of a courtyard with a loggia, fountains, statues, and other ornaments (Prospetto d'un regio Cortile nel cui mezzo vi stà una Loggia...), from "Prima Parte di Architettura, e Prospettive"

Original title: View of a courtyard with a loggia, fountains, statues, and other ornaments (Prospetto d'un regio Cortile nel cui mezzo vi stà una Loggia...), from "Prima Parte di Architettura, e Prospettive"

Artist: Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Date: ca. 1750
Medium: Etching
Dimensions: Plate (Image): 9 1/8 × 13 15/16 in. (23.2 × 35.4 cm) Plate (Inscription): 11/16 × 13 3/4 in. (1.7 × 34.9 cm) Sheet: 13 1/4 × 19 7/16 in. (33.7 × 49.4 cm)
Credit line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1937

kurzbeschreibung

Giovanni Battista Piranesi made this etching around 1750, presenting a courtyard laid out in strict mirror symmetry. A loggia carried on columns anchors the centre of the sheet. It belongs to the series 'Prima Parte di Architettura, e Prospettive' and counts among the artist's architectural inventions.

Description

Building elements arrange themselves symmetrically around the central loggia, with palace facades of elaborate ornament and balconies attached on either side. Fountains and statues join the loggia as decoration. Beyond, further structures rise with domes and columns. People sit and walk among the architecture, while light filters dimly through clouds and shadow.

Context

Piranesi produced this sheet during his early Roman years, when he was absorbed in ancient building and in vedute. The series 'Prima Parte di Architettura, e Prospettive' appeared around 1743 and was later enlarged. Baroque architecture and Roman antiquity shape the work, yet Piranesi kept to no real site, assembling idealised designs instead.

Impact

The viewer's eye is drawn to the middle and then slides along the symmetrical axes into depth. Clear line and monumental forms place him in an invented yet credible world. From the order of the layout and its many details grows a calm and at the same time solemn mood.

Technique

In etching, the artist scratches the drawing into a wax layer over the copper plate and then bites it with acid. Fine strokes and hatching yield graded greys that work out light and shadow. Printing was in black on white paper, as was usual for eighteenth-century etchings.

AI-generated description text

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)