Piranesi's Rome: Views of the Eternal City
September 20-December 7, 2024
Piranesi's Rome highlights the masterful etchings by the 18th century artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi in The George Washington University Collection. Piranesi was more than a mere printmaker of his time. He was a visionary architect and proto-archaeologist who set the tone for how successive generations comprehend the ‘Eternal City.’ This exhibition invites viewers to compare Rome as it stands today with Piranesi’s view. How did Piranesi depart from reality to create his artistic vision and when did he accurately portray these ruins as he saw them in the 18th century? How do his views compare with how we see them today?
Piranesi’s emphasis on the grandeur of Roman architecture is further echoed in the Founding Fathers’ vision for America’s public spaces, especially here in Washington DC, where Roman architecture was seen as a symbol of the nation’s democratic ideals and stability. This exhibit features works from the series ‘Vedute di Roma’ (Views of Rome), ‘Le Antichita Romane’ (Roman Antiquities), and ‘Carceri d’Invenzione’ (Imaginary Prisons.) Together, these series reveal Piranesi’s penchant to depict a maddening sense of scale and an imagined view of reality that make both the ruins of an ancient empire and the depths of the human psyche equally monumental.
Research and writing for this exhibition was provided by the students in the Summer 2024 class ‘Discovering the Romans’ taught by Professor Rachel Pollack as well as recent alumni and current undergraduate students. Support for this exhibition is provided by the following:
Frances and Leonard Burka Fund for the Arts
Luther W. Brady Art Gallery Director's Discretionary Endowment
Friends of the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery
This exhibition began as a University Writing Course. Read more about how the exhibition came to be in this post on the Univeristy Writing website
In October 2024 the talents of Corcoran and GWU alumni, professors, staff, and students were on full display in Rome Now, a Pop Up exhibition held in conjunction with Piranesi's Rome. Read about it on the University Writing website
Image: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, View of the Capitoline Hill with the Steps Leading to the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, 1757, etching on wove paper, 15" x 21-3/16". Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Bequest of Frank B. Bristow) CGA.68.26.837.