Opening each folio leaf reveals a competence, a skill that is almost indescribable. My greatest regret is that Father Haller is not here to hear me rave about the incredible facility of this man Piranesi. I said I would, but sadly it wasn’t until after his death in 2008 that I finally sat down to peruse the images in those folios of which there are twenty-one. He admonished me not to miss looking at the Piranesi housed in the stately folios at the rear of the reading room in Special Collections. It was then I met Georgetown’s late curator of fine prints, Father Joseph Haller, who introduced me to the Special Collections room on the 5th floor in Lauinger. I’m sure I saw examples of his work at the National Gallery from time to time but I didn’t really see Piranesi until I came to Georgetown five years ago. They were visually flat and they still are today if you see them that way. Why didn’t I appreciate Piranesi then? Perhaps it was because all the images I saw at first where 4 by 6 inches or smaller on the glossy pages of an art history book. What were they raving about? I could see the gesture, the fantasy, the bridges going nowhere, but Piranesi didn’t affect me the way Ecce Homo (Rembrandt) and Black Lion Wharf (Whistler) did. But Piranesi was the one printmaker I didn’t get. I was incredibly lucky to have the teachers I had at university and I became a teacher myself because of influence they had on me. The prints were gestural, mysterious, fantastic in design and surreal. Specifically they spoke of the Carceri or “Prison” images. When I was a student, my printmaking teachers praised Giovanni Battista Piranesi as one of the great print masters. I am a printmaker, master printer, and I teach Printmaking for the Art and Art History Department at Georgetown University. GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI Reflections by Georgetown Studio Art Lecturer Scip Barnhart, Master Printmaker and founder of Union Printmakers AtelierĪrt historians and print curators describe Piranesi as the greatest designer and innovator in the art of printmaking in the 18th century. Booth Family Center for Special Collections.Rare Books, Manuscripts, Art & Archives.Piranesi saw his imaginative structures as a way to argue for the superiority of ancient Rome over all other architectural eras and restore Rome to its former glory. Piranesi did not draw entirely from the caprices of his imagination, however, but often manipulated real landscapes, represented unreal structures based on existing architecture, or drew from his experience with set design in the theater. The awe-inspiring nature of Piranesi’s sublime structures aided in attracting travelers to the Grand Tour, a pilgrimage to see famous classical antiquities in person popular among 18th-century European intellectuals. Through fantastical sweeping vistas and soaring spaces, Piranesi sought to create an affective experience that would strike awe and admiration into antiquarians and intellectuals around Europe. Piranesi, a printmaker, architect, and antiquarian, produced thousands of printed books and participated in archaeological excavations. Piranesi: Architecture of the Imagination, a selection of etchings by Venetian-born printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778), from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s collection is currently on view in the Ridley-Tree Gallery.
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