Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi - In-person Lecture

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) lived away from his native Venice because he couldn’t find patrons there willing to support “the sublimity of his ideas,” as he said. Instead, Piranesi resided in Rome, where he became internationally famous working as a printmaker, designer, architect, archaeologist, theorist, dealer, and polemicist.  While Piranesi’s fame is based on his graphic etchings, he was also an accomplished and versatile draftsman, and all of his work was first developed through drawings. Piransesi’s graphic ‘vedute’ (views) of Rome were collected by many taking the ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe.

The Morgan Library’s exhibition will be the most comprehensive look at Piranesi’s drawings in more than a generation. The Morgan boasts the largest and most important collection of Piranesi’s drawings in the world, forming the core of the exhibition, which will also be complemented by seldom-exhibited loans from a number of private collections.

Professor Thomas Germano will present a visual lecture about the exhibition and the life and works of Piranesi.