The Braidense Library dedicates an exhibition to Piranesi for the 300th anniversary of his birth

The exhibition Piranesi in Milan, marking the 300th anniversary of the birth of Giovan Battista Piranesi (Venice, 1720 - Rome, 1778), a great engraver, architect, excavator, restorer of ancient pieces and owner of an important art workshop in Rome, opens today and will remain open until November 14, 2020, at the Braidense Library in Milan.

The exhibition displays a collection of 97 works including catalogs, drawings, engravings, books, and paintings, as well as 66 documentation photographs and two videos that testify to the link between Piranesi and Milan. It is curated by Pierluigi Panza and Aldo Coletto, supported by Intesa Sanpaolo with the Amici di Brera, and features loans from the Brera Academy Library, the Achille Bertarelli Collection of Prints, the Civic Cabinet of Drawings, theState Archives of Milan, the Museo teatrale alla Scala, the collections of the Teatro alla Scala and the Rancati tooling company, the Library of the Teulié Military School, as well as private collections related to Milan.

Milan devoted much attention to Piranesi’s etchings, including the Carceri and Vasi series, witnessing their unpublished processes of acquisition and their fortune in Brera’s neoclassical season. Also preserved among the catalogs of the Braidense Library is the only copy in the world of the Antichità Romane, formerly owned by Carlo Firmian, to which the manuscript Allocuzione agli accademici di San Luca is prefixed. The catalogs of the Brera Academy Library arrived in the Napoleonic period at the behest of Giuseppe Bossi, perpetual secretary of Brera. For the first time, some volumes from an unknown complete collection of Piranesi’s works will be on display, namely that of the Library of the Teulié Military School: the latter comes from the owner of the main Scottish foundry of the 19th century and features an engraving of the Trajan Column about two meters long. A number of sketches testifying to Piranesi’s influence on the Milanese set designers come from the Museo teatrale della Scala, and from La Scala also two 18th-century suits used for Don Giovanni, which bear a resemblance to many of the clothes worn by the characters engraved by Piranesi in his Views of Rome. Documents preserved in the State Archives also document another fact: in 1808 Francesco Piranesi, son of Giovan Battista, wanted to transfer the intaglio and manufacturing industry started in France to Milan; a move that was not accomplished.

Also on display in the exhibition are an unpublished drawing, with a portrait of Piranesi, attributable to painter Giorgio Teulié, and works from the Icons series. Unplegged by Milanese artist Luca Pignatelli, who reworks prints by Piranesi, and ongoing film and university experiences on Piranesi.

The Piranesi exhibition in Milan is open to the public daily, except Sundays, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and can only be visited by reservation to be made through https://booking.bibliotecabraidense.org

Image: Giovan Battista Piranesi, Lettere di Giustificazione scritto a Milord Charlemont e a’ di lui agenti di Roma...Roma, 1757, second frontispiece. This is a shortened version of the frontispiece of vol.II of the Antichità Romane. Braidense National Library.

The Braidense Library dedicates an exhibition to Piranesi for the 300th anniversary of his birth

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