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

The Digital Piranesi

Referentiality

Piranesi’s images often include detailed, alphabetic keys to their architectural details. Their keys are often difficult to read, and their indexical letters are usually hard to locate. These hyperlinked images connect letters in each image to the appropriate information in the key.

In the original images, letters are mostly indistinguishable, and the keys, even in high-quality illustrated books, are barely legible. The content of these notes is often objective, as in the image of the Pantheon. In other engravings, though, these virtually lost texts include striking arguments about aesthetics or bold speculations about of the distant past. 

 

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