![]() Etching also provided Piranesi with a livelihood, allowing him to turn one of his favorite activities, drawing the ancient and modern buildings of Rome, into a lucrative source of income. The knowledge of ancient building methods demonstrated by Piranesi’s archaeological prints allowed him to make a name for himself as an antiquarian-his Antichità Romane of 1756 ( 41.71.1.3 41.71.1.3) won him election to the Society of Antiquarians of London. Quickly mastering the medium of etching, Piranesi found in it an outlet for all his interests, from designing fantastic complexes of buildings that could exist only in dreams ( 37.45.3), to reconstructing in painstaking detail the aqueduct system of the ancient Romans. Whether or not Piranesi studied printmaking in Venice, it is certain that soon after his arrival in Rome in 1740, he apprenticed himself briefly to Giuseppe Vasi, the foremost producer of the etched views of Rome that supplied pilgrims, scholars, artists, and tourists with a lasting souvenir of their visit. Although he had limited success in attracting architectural commissions, this diverse training served him well in the profession that would establish his fame. ![]() Piranesi also received a thorough background in perspective construction and stage design. The son of a stonemason and master builder, he received practical training in structural and hydraulic engineering from a maternal uncle who was employed by the Venetian waterworks, while his brother, a Carthusian monk, fired the aspiring architect with enthusiasm for the history and achievements of the ancient Romans. One of the greatest printmakers of the eighteenth century, Piranesi always considered himself an architect. This statement by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, reported by one of his early biographers, in many ways sums up the man whose dreams of antiquity so often surpassed reality, from his earliest etchings of architectural fantasies to the fanciful restorations of ancient remains that he produced at the end of his career. ![]() “I need to produce great ideas, and I believe that if I were commissioned to design a new universe, I would be mad enough to undertake it.” ![]()
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