Giovanni Battista Piranesi's Views of Rome on display at the National Gallery of Umbria

The exhibition Piranesi in the Collections of the National Gallery of Umbria, curated by Carla Scagliosi, is on view until January 8, 2023. Through sixty-one etchings dedicated to the ancient and modern beauties of Rome and its environs taken from the two volumes of the Vedute di Roma, among the most representative of his research path and his stylistic, formal and technical evolution, the exhibition celebrates the genius of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Mogliano Veneto, 1720 - Rome, 1778), the great Venetian architect, engraver and theorist.

The Vedute will pass down for centuries the appearance of a Rome filtered through the author’s genius and spread his fame throughout Europe. The city, caught in its decline and in the coexistence of present and past, with its great ancient monuments and modern architecture, populated by tiny, frenetic and anonymous presences, brings together all the characteristics that distinguish great modern capitals. The Views of Rome accompany Piranesi throughout his life and symbolically cover every aspect of his production, highlighting his inventive, technical, and perspective skills, as well as the broad imagery underlying his archaeological and antiquarian, as well as visionary and fantastic, obsessions. The pictorial characteristics of the views are thus appreciated, with the broad palette of blacks and grays demonstrating his perfect mastery of theetching technique.

Rounding out the exhibition is the video installation featuring the 3D animated film Piranesi, Carceri d’Invenzione 300 anni (lasting almost 6 minutes) made by artist and designer Grégoire Dupond with music by composer, musician and sound designer Teho Teardo (viewable here), commissioned by the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria and presented in October 2020 on the occasion of the third centenary of the artist’s birth. Dedicated to one of the most significant masterpieces of Piranesi’s entire production, the Carceri d’Invenzione, the film gives the opportunity viewers to explore through new technologies the spaces created by Piranesi’s “black mind,” walking through and accessing them with their gaze through openings and windows, thus amplifying the feelings of bewilderment and claustrophobia generated by the vision of the labyrinthine succession of staircases, heights, towers, bridges, and suspended elements.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the seventh volume of the series Quaderni della Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, published by Aguaplano Libri, was published, dedicated to the Perugian collection of Piranesi engravings, of which a limited edition has also been produced, to which is coupled the 7-inch vinyl record The Ghost of Piranesi, which contains the original music composed by Teho Teardo for the aforementioned animated film.

In the two-year period 2018-2020, the National Gallery of Perugia promoted a major restoration campaign of works on paper from its collections, including the approximately 140 engravings collected in the two volumes of Views of Rome drawn and engraved by Venetian architect Giambattista Piranesi, with the intention of raising awareness and appreciation of the museum’s heritage and the works kept in its repositories.

The delicate restoration has restored the perfect legibility of the engravings and initiated their digitization and entry into the museum’s vast digital archive, and the project of study and research on Piranesi’s works preserved in the Gallery, which also include the volume Antichità d’Albano e di Castel Gandolfo descritte ed incise da Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose plates will be the subject of a forthcoming conservation campaign.

For info: www.gallerianazionaledellumbria.it

Hours: in October Mondays from 12 to 7:30 p.m., Tuesdays to Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; November to January Tuesdays to Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., closed Mondays.

Following are some Views.

Giovanni Battista

Giovanni Battista Piranesi's Views of Rome on display at the National Gallery of Umbria

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.