The northern city of Gorizia has decided to host an unusual exhibition paying homage to the work of the eclectic and visionary architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Mogliano Veneto 1720-Rome 1778), who expressed his originality through his art and in his conception and decoration of the most disparate objects.
The exhibit features 124 etchings of great style and quality, which are on show until August 19 in the 18th-century Palazzo Attems-Petzenstein.
The exhibition - the first step in a broader project that the Gorizia Provincial Museum is this year dedicating to the theme of "Life in the 18th Century" - will feature a rich variety of works that have changed the way history is viewed and influenced the development of forms of architecture and the applied arts.
Many of the works being exhibited are on loan to Italy from the Zagreb Museum of Applied Arts, including two etchings on display for the first time in Italy.
Piranesi is an exceptional figure in the world of 18th-century art. He trained as an architect in Venice and had a firm understanding of design and copperplate. He settled in Rome in 1740. He remained deeply fascinated by the creativity of ancient civilizations, and focused all his activity to re-evoking the spirit of the well-planned Roman "urbe" or town.
His etchings are marked by the idea of a Roman magnificence and dignity, expressed through grandiosity and isolating architectural elements, so as to imbue his designs with a sense of the grandeur of past times.
The exhibit will also feature some rare works by Piranesi displaying his etching skills and looking at a lesser-known aspect of his work: a compendium of Roman antiquities that he gathered and transposed onto the page with outstanding skill.
Piranesi balanced his output between Venice and Rome, the Baroque and Classicism, creating strong, incisive and truly original works, all marked by his strong personal sense of style, which blended Venetian and Roman traditions.
