A key figure in the history of architectural drawing and printmaking, Ventian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1770 - 1778) was the influential genius behind the wildly imaginative and evocative
Le Carceri series of prints
- with important examples and collections held in the British Museum
. Known for interiors and enclosed spaces filled with a unique atmosphere of spatial fantasy, overwhelming, inhuman scale and oppresive baroque alienation, his work was underpinned by exceptional draughtsmanship and a keen understanding of the principles - perspective, line and plane, vanishing point and other techniques that supported his architectural imagination.
This is a showcase of his outstanding sketches and drawings, held as a collection in the British museum, with knowledgeable contextual commentary by British museum curator Sarah Vowles.
