Catalogo delle Opere Date Finora Alla Lvce Da Gio Battista Piranesi
1749
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
1749
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
This etching shows crowded sheets of paper with prints stacked and pinned up. It looks like a messy print shop in 1779, with piles of prints and tools everywhere. Piranesi didn’t just show prints—he listed them all in tiny text. The messy scene hides a catalog of his own work, made the same year he died. Check out the piles of prints yourself at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.