Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) was an Italian printmaker, architect, and antiquarian. His masterful etchings of enigmatic and impossible architectures have mesmerized us for over two centuries.
Victor Plahte Tschudi, in this incredibly well-researched book, investigates the “appropriation” of Piranesi since 1900 in the fields of literature, photography, art, film, and architecture. Firstly, what becomes clear from Tschudi’s explorations is that interpretation of anything, but especially art, changes over time, influenced by the “fads” of the moment—modernism, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, and so on ad nauseam. Secondly, the more enigmatic and non-real art is the greater the lasting intrigue, even though this waxes and wanes.
The book is nicely produced and graphically very rich, as is to be expected considering the subject matter. Piranesi’s etchings, which are by no means exhaustive, are beautifully reproduced, both in close-up detail and full works. After the Prelude (Introduction), there are six chapters followed by a Coda...