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The Digital Piranesi

Egyptian Obelisk

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Egyptian Obelisk
In its composition, technique, and text, this image of 1759 places particular emphasis on the hieroglyphics carved into this obelisk, which, as the caption explains, was erected in the Piazza of San Giovanni Laterano under Pope Sixtus V. Positioned after the two previous views of teh Basilica San Giovanni Laterano (1749) and teh same basilica and piazza (1775), both of which mark another obelisk that remined on the ground there for decades, this view suggests a shift of attention to the ancient past that the chronology of these images would reject. This view’s visual emphasis on the ancient Egyptian writing system is not apparent in other views that include some of the numerous obelisks standing throughout Rome, such as this view of the Piazza del Popolo or another of the Piazza Navona. In each of these other views, wider scenes that include more expansive architectural contexts pull viewers’ attention away from what here seems to be Piranesi’s focus: in the view of the Piazza Navona, for example, the surface of the obelisk is marked only by the horizontal lines made by Piranesi’s etching needle. By contrast, the visual composition of this plate minimizes the obelisk’s modern urban setting. Even its Latin inscription is so lightly etched that is is effectively effaced. The worm’s eye view and orientation towards the East magnify the obelisk itself, which is strikingly set against the background of a cloudy sky instead of Rome’s built environment. The Scala Santa and the remains of ancient aqueducts, though labeled, are very faintly etched and just barely visible.

Instead, his etching needle meticulously renders an ancient writing system that was then thought, in the phrase of French historian Antoine-Yves Goguet (1716-1758), “peindre la parole et … parler aux yeux” (cited in Neis 42). Hieroglyphics were legible only after the Rosetta stone was discovered in 1799 and polyglot Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) deciphered them in 1822. Until then, they were thought to be an ideographic, non-alphabetic writing system (but are in fact both semantic and phonetic, representing both words and sounds). During Piranesi’s lifetime, though, the notion of painting speech and speaking to the eyes resonates with his own combinations of words and images.

His interest in Egyptian writing and aesthetics is on fuller display in later works. The image below is one of the small architectural fantasies added to his Opere Varie (included in the eighth volume of Didot’s Opere) in the early 1760s that combines Roman, Greek, and Egyptian designs. In his Diverse Maniere d’Adornare i Cammini ed Ogni Altra Parte degli Edifizi desunte dall’Architettura Egizia, Etrusca, e Greca (1769), he depicts hieroglyphics in many of his designs for fireplaces. Additionally, in the work’s “Ragionamento Apologetico in Difesa dell’Architettura Egizia e Toscana,” he writes that remaining examples of Egyptian statues, capitals, sphinxes, and other ornamental details indicate “qual fosse il genio della nazione” (Diverse Maniere 2). These images take part in of Egyptomania, which Piranesi did much to initiate before the fad reached its heights after his death in the early decades of the nineteenth century (Lawrence). The arrangement in the Opere of this and the two previous images creates a viewing experience which, although not intended by Piranesi, nevertheless hints that the neglected past, and specifically the foreign plunder of the imperial past, warrants focused attention. With his later work, and in the visual emphasis of the image above, he favors aesthetic eclecticism that promotes the value of diverse ancient cultures even as it risks cultural appropriation. (JB)
To see this image in the Vedute di Roma, volume 16 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.