Prisoners on a Projecting Platform, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian
Publisher Giovanni Bouchard Italian
Not on view
In the rough and bold etchings of the Carceri, Piranesi achieved the immediacy of a drawn sketch in print. The low viewpoint and the small size of the figures emphasize the immensity of these invented spaces, based on stage prisons rather than real ones. The spatial anomalies were meant not to be logical but to express vastness and strength.
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