The Pier with a Lamp, plate 15 from Imaginary Prisons - Giovanni Battista Piranesi

The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections

"The Pier with a Lamp, plate 15 from Imaginary Prisons" by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1761) Etching and engraving on heavy ivory laid paper.

Commentary

"The Pier with a Lamp, plate 15 from Imaginary Prisons" by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1761) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together. The print-based method rewards close viewing, where line, texture, and contrast do most of the expressive work. Themes to notice include etching. This piece is held in the source collection's Prints and Drawings collection. Giovanni Battista Piranesi is the artist behind this work. A useful anchor for reading the piece: Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian, 1720-1778. The work is cataloged within a Italy cultural context. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as etching, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Etching and engraving on heavy ivory laid paper) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (Image: 40.8 × 54.7 cm (16 1/8 × 21 9/16 in.); Plate: 41.3 × 55.3 cm (16 5/16 × 21 13/16 in.); Sheet: 59 × 77.8 cm (23 1/4 × 30 11/16 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include etching. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/7380

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data