Plate 3: Inscriptions on Antiquities outside Rome with Index of Plates, from "Antichità Romane de' Tempi della Repubblica, e de' primi Imperatori"
ca. 1748
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Plate: 9 5/16 × 14 1/8 in. (23.6 × 35.8 cm) Sheet: 13 1/16 × 18 15/16 in. (33.1 × 48.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1937
Accession Number
37.45.3(70)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the visionary 18th-century Venetian artist and architect, created this etching around 1748 as Plate 3 from his monumental series *Antichità Romane de' Tempi della Repubblica, e de' primi Imperatori*. This-volume work meticulously documents ancient Roman ruins and artifacts, capturing the grandeur of the Eternal City during the height of the Grand Tour era, when European elites traveled to Italy to study classical antiquity. Here, Piranesi presents detailed inscriptions carved on antiquities outside Rome, accompanied by an index of plates, offering visitors a scholar...
About the Artist
Giovanni Battista Piranesi · 1720–1778
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) was an Italian printmaker, architect, and antiquarian whose visionary etchings of Rome and imaginary prisons revolutionized architectural representation and profoundly influenced both Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Piranesi stands as one of the most important printmakers of the eighteenth century, fundamentally shaping European perceptions of ancient Rome an...