Piranesi - The Dark Prisons

Issued between 1761 and 1778, this third edition of Carceri d’Invenzione prints are from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation in New York. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) has been called the “greatest Italian printmaker of the eighteenth century.” The Dark Prisons series are depictions of ancient Roman prisons, likely derived from Piranesi’s imagination. Most consider his drawings of the interiors too spacious to be those of institutions that actually existed. The instruments of torture are visible in the works, and like the buildings, bigger than was likely. Art historian Malcolm Campbell writes that “more overtly stated than this commentary on the foreign corruption of ancient Roman law and justice is a larger theme, unrestricted by historical time, concerning the human creative spirit at risk.”

On Loan from the Arthur Ross Foundation, New York Text supplied by Malcolm Campbell, Piranesi:The Dark Prisons: An Edition of the Carceri d’Invenzione from the Collection of The Arthur Ross Foundation, 1988, Malcolm Campbell and the Arthur Ross Foundation.

European Masterpiece Series:
Piranesi - The Dark Prisons
Giovanni Battista Piranesi