A new exploration of Piranesi’s work as a draftsman, published to coincide with an exhibition at the British Museum. The Venetian-born artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) is best known for his dramatic etchings of the architecture and antiquities of his adopted home city of Rome and for his extraordinary flights of spatial fancy, such as Le Carceri (“Prisons”). Published to coincide with an exhibition at the British Museum, this volume explores Piranesi’s celebrated skill as a draftsman. While many studies are concerned with Piranesi’s activities as a printmaker, this beautifully illustrated book examines new dimensions of his art by focusing on his drawings. Curator and author Sarah Vowles establishes a clear relationship between his drawings and prints, discusses the involvement of studio hands in his late works, and examines how his style as a draftsman evolved. Piranesi Drawings reveals the quality and lasting impact of the pen and chalk studies by a remarkably talented draftsman, as demonstrated by the superb collection at the British Museum.

Layers / by Heather Hyde Minor -- Lost and found / by Carolyn Yerkes -- Pages / by Carolyn Yerkes -- Dedicated and sent / by Heather Hyde Minor -- Bound / by Heather Hyde Minor -- Sold / by Carolyn Yerkes.

Reprinted from rare, expensive first and second editions, this version of Piranesi's masterwork presents side-by-side renderings of original and extensively revised drawings in a large format. 33 full-page illustrations.

An impassioned plea for a Roman-Style eclecticism that draws freely on all artistic forms and traditions, Piranesi's Observations anticipates the contemporary debate between devotees of a rational, minimal architecture and advocates of an architecture rich in ornament and historical references."--BOOK JACKET.

Examines the writings of eighteenth-century Italian engraver and artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Renowned as one of the finest printmakers of the eighteenth century, Giovanni Battista Piranesi is best known for his etched views of Rome and its antiquities, as well as for his highly influential suite of drawings entitled Carceri, or Imaginary Prisons. Trained as an architect, Piranesi revolutionized architecture and design through his combination of decorative elements and ornamental motifs from the Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman styles; yet his work as the designer of interiors and furnishings has been largely uncelebrated. Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Piranesi as Designer explores the far-reaching impact of Piranesi's modernist style on three centuries of architecture and design. 144 pages nearly 200 integrated color photographs