![]() ![]() Keith Murdoch Gallery, State Library of Victoria Holden makes interesting comparisons between Piranesi’s ruins and the work of Australian artists such Russell Drysdale’s crumbling and deserted outback pub in Hill End (1952). Trot along and decide for yourself whether Piranesi is the most important engraver and printmaker of the eighteenth century, and the greatest architectural artist of all time.Ĭolin Holden’s excellent book, Piranesi’s Grandest Tour: From Europe to Australia, is being sold in conjunction with the exhibition. Glass cabinets display an assortment of Piranesi publications on classical Roman buildings with architectural cross-sections that show off Piranesi’s prolific and exquisitely detailed work. Piranesi’s prints are interspersed with engravings and etchings by his contemporaries including Vasi, and there are paintings by Giovanni Paolo Panini. The layout and design of the exhibition enhances the visual enjoyment-the walls are painted gold and feature decorative panels. Most of the prints focus on his Vedute di Roma that capture the essence of Rome and the era of the Grand Tour. Curated by Dr Colin Holden, this is the largest exhibition of Piranesi’s work ever seen in Australia. Rome: Piranesi’s vision runs until 22 June at the SLV. Just a coincidence? Or just an unconscious influence?Ĭurrently, there are three exhibitions in Melbourne that focus on Piranesi’s vision. Piranesi wasn’t in anyone’s mind” when he and Nonda Katsalidis conceived their design. However, according to Clark, MONA’s owner David Walsh, says “there is no such connection. Since its opening in 2011, many visitors to MONA have compared the subterranean art galleries with Piranesi’s Carceri. MONA was described as “a maze of Piranesi-like architectures”. Clark presented a paper on ‘Piranesi and MONA: inspiration or retrospective myth’, drawing our attention to an article in the prestige car magazine, Trend Visions. ![]() The conference brought together local and international speakers including Jane Clark (Senior Research Curator at MONA, Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art, in Hobart). The Australian Institute of Art History, in collaboration with the Baillieu Library and the SLV, hosted a conference on Piranesi and the Impact of the Late Baroque on 27 and 28 February 2014 at The University of Melbourne. Many of the bound volumes at the SLV were from the collection of George IV, while those from the Baillieu Library were acquired from James Alipius Goold, Melbourne’s first Roman Catholic archbishop. Edition: Francesco Piranesi, 1800-07, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.īoth The University of Melbourne (Baillieu Library) and the State Library of Victoria (SLV) have distinguished collections of Piranesi prints. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, ‘Prisoners on a Projecting Platform’, from ‘Carceri’, 1749-50. As such, Piranesi’s imaginary prisons held a mesmerising fascination for later Romantic writers, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Edgar Allen Poe (‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ 1842). Diminutive figures appear doomed to climb endless staircases without hope of release. As can be seen in the following etching, drama is achieved through contrasts between the lit spaces and the deep shadows. Piranesi’s ‘prison’ etchings convert ancient Roman ruins into elaborate, visionary dungeons filled with stairways that go nowhere, and with mysterious scaffolding and instruments of torture. The English word ‘capricious’ derives from capriccio and suggests the irrational. ![]() ![]() This form of veduta, the capriccio , combines life-like architectural elements in a rather strange fashion. These days Piranesi is probably best known for his Prisons (or Carceri) etchings of labyrinthine prison interiors, which were constructions of his imagination and pushed the limits of perspective and spatial illusion. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, ‘Piazza del Popolo’, ca 1750, etching, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ![]()
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