The series presented here, according to Robison, represents the second of six editions and it is in the fifth of eight issues. I. Second edition, fifth issue of Piranesi's first work: a record of the young engraver's first encounter with the antiquities of Rome and of his difficulty in giving visual form to its immense grandeur. Book block partly detached from the binding. Binding worn and rubbed, corners and extremities of the spine damaged.

Spine with gilt title and volume numbering on double morocco lettering-pieces. This copy also includes nine etchings taken from other Piranesi works: four from the 1753 edition of the Trofei and ten etchings, printed on five leaves, from a 1760s edition of the Opere varie. II. Thirty etched plates (two titles, dedication to Giovanni Gaetano Bottari dated 20 July 1748, two plates of inscriptions and index, and twenty-five views). Watermarks: Robison 39 (late 1760s-early 1770s). 'Invenzioni capric di carceri: The Prisons of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778),' Getty Research Journal 2 (2010): 153.ġ7Marchesano, “Invenzioni capric di carceri,” 151.Two works in one volume, folio (330x465 mm). 17ġ4Lucchi, Lowe, Pavanello, The arts of Piranesi, 125.ġ5Marchesano, Louis. The prisons of I Carceri stand out as one of his major achievements. For example, in Italy, a popular representation of the sublime involved depictions of Mount Vesuvius erupting, a terrific and devastating event. The images presented by these plates would have been deeply haunting to his audience as an expression of the sublime, a style founded in the emotion of terror which was becoming fashionable in the art world. 16 In these prints, Piranesi demonstrated an investment in a unique visual experience for the viewer, evidenced by the tug of war between light and shadow. No other prints by Piranesi force the eye to move so deeply inward and upward. Piranesi’s dabbling in stage design must have also been an influence in the invention of I Carceri, as the fantasy and narrative of such architecture is omnipresent. 15 The second edition of I Carceri was inspired by his obsession with archaeology and antiquity and was influenced by the impressions he gathered in Rome. I Carceri allowed Piranesi an experimental outlet with which he ventured into his interests of scale and monumentality. Piranesi betrays the rules of perspective and even hides important elements of the architecture itself when his etched lines fade into the edges of the paper. In I Carceri, Piranesi never presents an entire building, nor does he ever give enough information to distinguish the complete form of the structures, as in The Pier with Chains. In both pieces, there is a sense of cluttered and claustrophobic space, endlessly extending structures, and impossible structures. The Man on the Rack and The Pier with Chains, representative examples of I Carceri, both contain large cavities of space and gigantic pillars, buttresses, walls, and arches. 14 These pieces represented unrealistic architectural structures that have little to do with actual prisons.

In I Carceri, Piranesi explored the possibilities of perspective and spatial illusion while pushing the medium of etching to its limits. Piranesi created the series of convoluted prison interiors, I Carceri, after being influenced by his upbringing in the printmaking scene in Venice.

Giambattista piranesi roman forum