Antique Altar (Plate 7 from the series: First Part of Architecture and Perspective)
Artist
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
(Italian, 1720 - 1778)
Date1743
MediumEtching on paper
DimensionsOverall: 13 3/4 x 18 11/16in. (34.9 x 47.5cm)
Image: 9 1/8 x 13 3/8in. (23.2 x 34cm)
Image: 9 1/8 x 13 3/8in. (23.2 x 34cm)
ClassificationsPRINTS
Credit LineGift of Edward W. Root
Terms
Object number53.151
DescriptionANTIQUITIES (From THE FIRST PART OF ARCHITECTURE AND PERSPECTIVE)On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightNo known copyright restrictions.
Label TextPiranesi was trained as an architect but worked throughout his career producing prints of the great monuments of Rome and the Renaissance. This print appeared in 1743 in Piranesi's first independent publication. Although not commercially successful, it contained the types of images that would reappear in his subsequent graphic output: architectural projects (both real and imagined), ruins, capriccios, grotesques and the like. As with many of Piranesi's images this print evokes nostalgia for a lost golden age. Classical fragments are arranged in picturesque fashion according to the dictates of the 18th century's taste for asymmetrical design. The skeletons and skulls liberally displayed throughout the design are powerful memento mori.
PDS
February 2005
