Etching
Etching is a graphic technique belonging to the family of intaglio printing. The starting point is a copper plate that is covered with an acid-resistant wax or resin called etching ground. The image is engraved in the etching ground using a blunt instrument. The plate is then treated with acid to create depressions where the metal is exposed. When printed on paper, the image on the plate will be reversed.
When Piranesi arrived in Rome in 1740, he quickly became a student of the famous graphic artist Giuseppe Vasi (1710–1782). Under Vasi, he learned to perfect the etching technique. Piranesi's etchings stand out with their picturesque expressions, smooth transitions and cloth-like texture rather than correct detailing.
Distorted reality
Piranesi and the National Museum
In 1877, the Norwegian art historian Lorentz Dietrichson (1832–1917) took the initiative to establish the Christiania Copperplate and Hand Drawing Collection. An advertisement was placed in a newspaper to encourage benevolent collectors to donate to the newly created collection. In 1908, the collection formally became part of the National Gallery (today the National Museum). Two Piranesi prints were among the first donations made.
This was the beginning of the National Museum's collection of his art. The collection has grown since then and in the 1970s the museum was able to acquire works from the famous series Carceri d´'invenzione (Imaginary Prisons) which was published for the first time in 1749–1750 and then in an enlarged and heavily edited edition in 1761.
The series is an example of Piranesi's architectural fantasies. Here he moves away from dramatic but recognisable images of Rome to architectural representations that are surreal, almost hallucinatory, as he plays with spatial perspectives. The Carceri series has inspired artists, architects, filmmakers, writers and philosophers to the present day, and has contributed to the recognition of Piranesi as avant-garde, still relevant 300 years after his birth.
The exhibition "Piranesi and the Modern Age" at the National Museum
