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INTRODUCTION
After a truly significant artist dies, although he is often temporarily âforgotten,â it is only a question of time before he is rediscovered. Meanwhile, whether adequately appreciated in his own lifetime or not, there is normally a tendency for him to be superseded in the public eye, at least, by some newer figure. Only a few artists in all history have been at once, and continually, recognized. And not even the greatest are internationally acknowledged until they have become established in the general consciousness as great innovators, or as outstanding figures in their national environment.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720â1778) did enjoy a considerable reputation in his lifetime, butâan unusual circumstanceâit was mainly outside of his native land, Italy! His dramatic personality and technical ability should have inspired nearly as wide attention as did Goyaâs. But unlike the slightly later Spanish master, who became preeminent in a number of artistic media, with a wide range of arresting, attractive subject matter, Piranesi excelled only in drawing and in the making of architectural prints, which often appeared in very large, expensive books. His most longed-for careerâto be employed as an architectâwholly eluded him except during two years in the mid-1760âs. This was his great personal tragedy, for it seems clear that he might have become as outstanding in this profession as he desired to be. Precocious, where Goya was late in reaching maturity, Piranesi might be said to have worn himself out prematurely, for he died at 58. Nevertheless, his production of prints was enormousâwell over a thousand etchings, mainly large in scaleâand his resourcefulness in getting them published, together with his quite controversial archaeological theories, was amazing considering his continual poverty and his unfortunate lack of powerful Italian patrons.
The series of prints which is the subject of this essay was first given the rather formidable, and poorly spelled, Italian title âInvenzioni Capric di Carceri all Acqua Forte Datte in Luce da Giovani Buzard [somewhat later spelled correctly Bouchard] in Roma Mercant(e) al Corsoâ by their publisher, who was a Frenchman. When Piranesi himself expanded the series to sixteen etchings, and took over the publication some years later, it was not a great deal clearer. One cannot be quite certain that âCarceriâ is preceded by the article âLe,â and then follows âDâInvenzione de G Battista Piranesi Archit Vene,â rather pathetically pointing to his Venetian origin and his aspiration to be regarded primarily as an architect. In neither case, be it noted, is there a date, but we feel rather certain now that the first fourteen prints were conceived and executed between about 1743 and 1745, while Piranesi was in his early twenties. In some respects their authorâs genius never surpassed this early tour de force, which of course is the reason one can say he was decidedly precocious. Time, and a great need for simplification, has reduced most references to the series to Le Carceri (in Italian) and The Prisons (in English).
Piranesiâs sources of inspiration are not hard to discover. Moreover, as so often in the case of a needy and sensitive artist, they were chosen because they related to a very deep spiritual conflict. Young as he was, Giovanni Battista had already begun to realize his architectural talents were not wanted. So, like Goya, whose first important print series Los Caprichos reflects another kind of inner crisis, Piranesi was not able to hide the fact that his prints are not mere âcaprices,â but a personal identification with the profounder implications of the subject matter. He had no solid career as a court painter behind him as Goya did. Indeed, because of his intransigent nature and constant quarrels, Piranesi was destined to continual disappointment, which was only lifted for a short time (in 1764-65) when two great ecclesiastical patrons gave him a minor architectural commission. Goyaâs later career was quite different, for he eventually had his fill of patronage and praise. But toward the end of his life, he abandoned it all and went to live in self-imposed exile. Had Piranesi been given a proper invitation to go to England, he might have prospered there, for a number of traveling English art connoisseurs on the Grand Tour came to admire him. And the contemporary Scots artist and architect Robert Adam became his close friend. A later generation of British notables, including William Beckford and J. M. W. Turner, actually made him famous. So in England, Piranesi was never completely forgotten. In America, his reputation has come much laterâmainly, one might say, in the last thirty years.
Although Arthur Samuelâs Piranesi (London, 1910) was the first critical recognition of this century, Albert Giesecke published a more important work, the first sound biography, at Leipzig one year later. These are the two books that really initiated the rediscovery of Piranesiâs genius, which had been largely forgotten during the second half of the nineteenth century. They were soon followed by Henri Focillonâs excellent and reliable catalogue (Paris, 1918), and then by Arthur M. Hindâs more detailed one which appeared in London in 1922.
From 1922 until after World War II there was a âgeneration gapâ so far as important contributions to the study of Piranesi are concerned. Then came the Pierpont Morgan Libraryâs sensational exhibition of drawings early in 1949. For this an excellent catalogue ...
