The Smoking Fire
published 1800/1809
Medium
etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.6991
Art Historical Context
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the visionary 18th-century Italian, architect, and printmaker, captivates with *The Smoking Fire*, a etching and engraving published posthumously between 1800 and 1809. Renowned for his intricate vedute of ancient Rome and fantastical architectural fantasies like the *Carceri d'Invenzione* (inary Prisons), Piranesi infused his works with a sense of sublime grandeur and atmospheric depth. This print, housed in the National Gallery of Art's esteemed Rosenwald Collection, exemplifies ability to evoke mystery and scale through imagined, labyrinthine spaces. Piranesi's ...
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...