Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Italian, 1720-1778
The Skeletons
INV-7385
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Italian, 1720-17781750
The Skeletons
Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian, 1720-1778 →etchingprint
Date
1750
Medium
Etching on heavy ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 38.9 × 54.2 cm (15 3/8 × 21 3/8 in.); Plate: 39.3 × 54.7 cm (15 1/2 × 21 9/16 in.); Sheet: 59 × 80.7 cm (23 1/4 × 31 13/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Art Institute of Chicago
This print is one of four grotesques (decorative fantasies) included in Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s popular series of architectural views of Rome and its surroundings. This kind of composition was inspired by Roman wall decorations discovered during the Renaissance and was meant to incorporate dissimilar elements in a whimsical and ornamental manner. This particular etching includes, among other things, a back view of the often-copied Farnese Hercules, a large zodiac wheel partly visible at the upper right, and various fragmentary skeletons adorned with tufts of wavy hair.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
View of Ponte Lugano on the Anio, from Views of Rome
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778) published by Francesco (Italian, 1758-1810) and Pietro Piranesi (Italian, born 1758/9)
The Giant Wheel, plate 9 from Imaginary Prisons
Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian, 1720-1778
Villa Pamphili outside Porta S. Pancrazio, from Views of Rome
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778) published by Francesco (Italian, 1758-1810) and Pietro Piranesi (Italian, born 1758/9)
