Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720 – 1778), the preeminent topographical etcher and graphic designer who produced more than 1,000 individual etchings, was the son of a stonemason and master builder. I’m sure Father Haller and my teachers are nodding in an “I told you so” manner.Īs visitors to this exhibition, you have an opportunity to see for yourself why such praise is bestowed on Giovanni Battista Piranesi. As a result of seeing these prints first hand, holding them, seeing the raised texture of the etched lines on the paper, I now consider Piranesi among the greatest of printmakers. Opening each folio leaf reveals a competence, a skill that is almost indescribable. My greatest regret is that Father Haller is not here to hear me rave about the incredible facility of this man Piranesi. I said I would, but sadly it wasn’t until after his death in 2008 that I finally sat down to peruse the images in those folios of which there are twenty-one. He admonished me not to miss looking at the Piranesi housed in the stately folios at the rear of the reading room in Special Collections. It was then I met Georgetown’s late curator of fine prints, Father Joseph Haller, who introduced me to the Special Collections room on the 5th floor in Lauinger. I’m sure I saw examples of his work at the National Gallery from time to time but I didn’t really see Piranesi until I came to Georgetown five years ago. They were visually flat and they still are today if you see them that way. Why didn’t I appreciate Piranesi then? Perhaps it was because all the images I saw at first where 4 by 6 inches or smaller on the glossy pages of an art history book. What were they raving about? I could see the gesture, the fantasy, the bridges going nowhere, but Piranesi didn’t affect me the way Ecce Homo (Rembrandt) and Black Lion Wharf (Whistler) did. But Piranesi was the one printmaker I didn’t get. I was incredibly lucky to have the teachers I had at university and I became a teacher myself because of influence they had on me. The prints were gestural, mysterious, fantastic in design and surreal. Specifically they spoke of the Carceri or “Prison” images. When I was a student, my printmaking teachers praised Giovanni Battista Piranesi as one of the great print masters. I am a printmaker, master printer, and I teach Printmaking for the Art and Art History Department at Georgetown University. GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI Reflections by Georgetown Studio Art Lecturer Scip Barnhart, Master Printmaker and founder of Union Printmakers AtelierĪrt historians and print curators describe Piranesi as the greatest designer and innovator in the art of printmaking in the 18th century.
Booth Family Center for Special Collections.Rare Books, Manuscripts, Art & Archives.
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