1754
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Title Plate is a 1754 ink by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This print shows a crumbling stone wall with a broken arch and uneven blocks. Vines climb over the ruins, and a small tree grows from the rubble. Above, a faint sky hints at a distant city with tiny figures. The words on the wall are in Italian, and a crow perches on a beam. The title at the top reads like a puzzle: *"Invenzioni Capricci all’Acqua Forte."* That means this is one of Piranesi’s famous "fancy prison" prints, where he mixed real ruins with wild imagination. Want to see more of this style? Check out etching to learn how artists like Piranesi made these detailed prints.
Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi (Italian pronunciation: ; also known as simply Piranesi; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his…
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