The Skeletons
Giovanni Battista Piranesi · 1750 · Art Institute of Chicago
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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.
The museum’s own description, in English. Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Details
- Maker
- Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian, 1720-1778
- 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.)
- Place of origin
- Italy
- Held by
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · Not on view
- Credit line
- The Art Institute of Chicago
Image: Art Institute of Chicago, CC0
More by Giovanni Battista Piranesi
View of the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, from Views of RomeGiovanni Battista Piranesi · 1773, published 1800–07
The Pyramid of Gaius Cestius, from Views of RomeGiovanni Battista Piranesi · 1750/59, published 1800–07
View of the Grand Cascade at Tivoli, from Views of RomeGiovanni Battista Piranesi · 1766
The Round Tower, plate 3 from the second edition of Carceri d'invenzione (Imaginary Prisons)
