1750, reworked 1761
Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian, 1720-1778
Italy
In addition to dramatic views of Roman architecture, Giovanni Battista Piranesi created a series of prison interiors that were entirely invented. These vast, entangled passageways and cavernous chambers were first printed around 1750. Ten years later, Piranesi reworked the plates, heightening their ominous
state in an implied critique of social injustice.
Etching, engraving, sulphur tint, and burnishing in black on ivory laid paper