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Even though Piranesi lived in Rome for the majority of his life, and used Rome as his main source of inspiration, he stated frequently that he considered himself a subject of the Republic of Venice. 9 Piranesi died in 1778 in Rome after a long decline in health. He made a substantial fortune by selling his huge views, and some of his copper plates are still used in Rome today. 8 In the next thirty-five years, Piranesi would etch over a thousand big plates.

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7 Piranesi, in collaboration with some young French artists from the Academy, began to distribute his own etchings with a series of small vedute over several decades. He put his wife’s dowry towards a supply of huge copper plates, allowing him to establish and sustain his independent career as a view-maker. 6 At thirty two, Piranesi married Angela Pasquini. 5 Soon after his arrival in Rome, Piranesi apprenticed himself briefly to the Sicilian Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782) the most famous producer of etched views of Rome, which he supplied to Grand Tourists as a lasting souvenir. In his early years in Rome, he published almost no artwork and spent the majority of his time observing and sketching ancient ruins and styling imaginary reconstructions. During his time in Rome, he drew everything: temples, palaces, bridges, aqueducts, and all of the fragments of Rome’s past which were, at the time, only just being uncovered and restored.4 At twenty-five (1745), Piranesi received an offer of work from a publisher in Rome and returned to settle there for life. Piranesi was captivated by the antiquity of Rome from a very young age, visiting the ancient city as an inexperienced draughtsman aboard an ambassadorial train.

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Piranesi learned to perfect the art of stage design, discovering how to render light and shade with dramatic effect, draw architecture from unique angles, and take risks with perspective. 2 The Venice in which Piranesi grew up introduced him to the architecture of the theatrical stage through the various productions he worked on, an experience that would be influential to the style he developed. 1 Piranesi’s family expected him to be an architect, and his upbringing in the architectural world of Venice was foundational in his future achievements.

His father was a stonemason and a master builder, and his mother was the elder sister of Matteo Lucchesi (1705-1776), a renowned architect and engineer who had connections in aristocratic circles. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) was born at Mogliano Veneto in Italy. Lodovico Ughi’s 1729 Map of Venice, 1729, engraving (World Digital Library)

Battista piranesi