Piranesi drawings: visions of antiquity

Published to coincide with an exhibition at the British Museum, Piranesi drawings explores Venetian-born artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s skills as a draughtsman. Known primarily for his dramatic etchings of the architecture and antiquities of Rome, and for his extraordinary flights of spatial fancy in works such as Le Carceri (‘Prisons’), this beautifully illustrated book examines the many unanswered questions about his drawings. We deliberately included scaled details of the works to allow readers to appreciate his exquisite pen and brush work and his skill at representing different textures.