Most Piranesi lovers adore his work because of the out-of-this-world quality that it has and not its precision. However to me this piece of information was truly unimportant because the geometric accuracy seems trivial in evaluating a work of art’s value. We also find out that the drawings are full of ‘mistakes’ as far as the geometrical accuracy of the perspective views and the positioning of the vanishing points. The exhibition captions placed under each drawing reveal interesting information like the fact that the figures in front of the temples were added posthumously by other artist’s or Piranesi’s son, which only makes sense as they do look rather odd. Piranesi was fascinated by them and he managed to grasp their quite unique atmosphere in the way that only he was able to. Because of that and also due to the stone they are made of they demonstrate rather peculiar signs of natural erosion. It seems that their style lays somewhere in the middle and their enormous Doric columns would ultimately be consider disproportionate by most Greeks and Romans.Īnother interesting fact about them is that they were not discovered before the mid-18 th century. However they are not representative of neither Greek nor Roman architecture. They are in Italy but they have Hellenic origin which means that they were created by Greek colonists in the 6 th century BC. However it should be mentioned that the actual Paestum temples are also truly special for many reasons. ![]() Soane owned 15 drawings from this series which have been reunited with two more brought here from Paris and Amsterdam for this exhibition. Piranesi wanted people to think that he was so uniquely gifted that he made the prints spontaneously and to perfection. It is rather impressive they were saved as he was notoriously known to destroy all his studies in order to create the illusion that he was infallible. ![]() Agnese on the Right Etching, 1751, from Vedute di Roma, 412 x 547 mm., Hind 16 iv/vi. Agnese on the Right (click on image to print) The Piazza Navona with S. ![]() The Paestum drawings were made as preparatory studies for the prints Piranesi made with the same subject. (Italian, 1720-1778) The Piazza Navona with S. Piranesi study drawing for the Paestum prints
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