Observations on the Letter of Monsieur Mariette: With Opinions on Architecture, with a Preface to a New Treatise on the Introduction and Progress of ... Europe in Ancient Times (Texts & Documents) - Softcover

Piranesi, Giovanni

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0892366362 ISBN 13: 9780892366361

Publisher: Getty Research Institute, 2002

Synopsis

Published in 1765, Giovanni Battista Piranesi's Osservazioni is an impassioned defense of the superiority of Roman architectural "invention" over the "beautiful and noble simplicity" of ancient Greece. In this three-part polemical masterpiece, the famed engraver and designer not only contends that the Etruscans-not the Greeks-were the artistic mentors of the Romans but also argues for a Roman-inspired exuberance in design that draws freely on all forms and traditions of ancient art. Although Piranesi's essentially Baroque vision set him at odds with the austere Neoclassicism of his contemporaries, his ideas were inspirational to such gifted eighteenth-century architects as Robert Adam, John Soane, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, and Étienne-Louis Boullée. Today, Piranesi's lively plea for imaginative eclecticism remains topical, as the debate continues over the relative merits of a rational, minimal architecture versus an architecture rich in ornament and historical references.

About this title

About the Author:

John Wilton-Ely is professor emeritus in the history of art at the University of Hull, England. Caroline Beamish has numerous published translations include Michel Melot's The Impressionist Print. David Britt has translated an array of books, including Aby Warburg's The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity.

About this edition

• Publisher: Getty Research Institute
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0892366362
• ISBN 13: 9780892366361
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192