This path was created by Mallory Baskin. The last update was by Jeanne Britton.

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The Digital Piranesi

Aesthetics

Piranesi makes strong arguments about the aesthetic superiority of Rome over Greece--not a popular view then or now--in written and visual texts. In making his case visually, he often uses composite or layered images in which numerous individual pages appear to be pinned to or unfurled upon other images. These illusions of layered pages are both sophisticated elements of graphic design and unique methods of referencing evidence.

Each of the engravings here is presented in two ways: on top, as a short video or hyperlinked image, and, below, as a high-resolution scan that allows for zooming.

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"On Les Plus Beaux Monuments de la Grece," Della Magnificenza ed architettura de’Romani, Plate XXXV (Opere, vol. 7). In this plate, Piranesi surrounds a “visual citation” of plates from David Le Roy's 1758 treatise Les Plus Beaux Monuments de la Grece with his own more dramatic illustrations of details from Roman architecture in order to challenge Le Roy’s claims about the superiority of Greek aesthetics.