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The Arch with a Shell Ornament, plate 11 of Carceri d’invenzioni (Imaginary Prisons)
The Arch with a Shell Ornament, plate 11 of Carceri d’invenzioni (Imaginary Prisons)

The Arch with a Shell Ornament, plate 11 of Carceri d’invenzioni (Imaginary Prisons)

Artist (Italian, 1720–1778)
Date1761
MediumEtching on laid paper
DimensionsImage: 16 1/4 x 21 3/4 inches (41.3 x 55.2 cm);
Sheet: 21 1/4 x 27 1/2 inches (54 x 69.9 cm)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineAcquired through the Membership Purchase Fund
Terms
  • Etching
  • Arches
  • Ladders
  • Lanterns
  • Lighting devices
  • Prisons
  • Pulleys
  • Rope
  • Stairways
  • laid
Object number69.075
Label CopyCarceri d’Invenzione is a series of invented prison scenes by the great Italian etcher Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Large-scale, virtuoso compositions, these prints brim with dramatic detail and impossible architectural intricacy. Piranesi allowed his inventiveness free rein and in the process influenced many subsequent generations of artists, including M. C. Escher, the Dutch twentieth-century master of mathematical illusion. ("Escaping the Ordinary: Artistic Imagination in Early Modern Prints," co-curated by Andrew C. Weisologel and Brittany Rubin, presented at the Johnson Museum January 21-June 11, 2017)
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