The Digital PiranesiMain MenuAboutThe Digital Piranesi is a developing digital humanities project that aims to provide an enhanced digital edition of the works of Italian illustrator Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778).Works and VolumesGenres, Subjects, and ThemesBibliographyGlossary
Studies of the Substructure of the Capitoline Hill
12021-05-19T11:43:15-07:00Jeanne Brittone120651dde677d5cf1fd515358b14d86eb289f11228491An animation of Giambattiasta Piranesi's On the Magnificence and Architecture of the Romans. For more, see digitalpiranesi.org.plain2021-05-19T11:43:16-07:00YouTube2021-05-19T18:42:19ZWuGJ33JEC7oDigital PiranesiJeanne Brittone120651dde677d5cf1fd515358b14d86eb289f11
This is a test to determine potential display options for annotated and animated images. In his rendition of the Substructure of the Capitoline Hill, Piranesi employs trompe l'oeil effects that call attention to his medium of print and the ephemerality of paper. Against a cross-section that is detailed with foliage and shading, two individual sheets of paper unfurl to reveal this structure from different perspectives. Although architectural illustration frequently moves fluidly between plan, section, and elevation, this image--and many others throughout Piranesi's works--merge these different representational techniques and perspectival approaches in the same visual field. Our animation, to the left, emphasizes Piranesi's own foregrounding of media.
