The works of the Italian master from the Hermitage collection in the museum of Yekaterinburg

The Museum of Fine Arts of Yekaterinburg invites residents and guests of the Ural capital to get acquainted with the work of the Italian artist Giovanni Batista Piranesi. The museum began to work on the exhibition “Palaces, Ruins and Dungeons”, the exposition of which was 59 works by an Italian master of the 18th century, brought to Yekaterinburg from the collection of the State Hermitage. Another engraving by the work of a contemporary of Piranesi, Felice Polanzani, depicts a portrait of the etching master himself.

Giovanni Piranesi created most of his fantastic works by arriving as a twenty-year-old, almost unknown artist, coming from his native Venice to Rome, where he took the first steps towards world fame. During the artist’s life, a series of etchings created in an original but strange manner were not famous, but later these very works of Piranesi became symbols of the avant-garde of the 18th century - neoclassicism.

At the exhibition in Yekaterinburg, visitors will get acquainted with the most famous series of etchings - “Prima Parte”, “Grotesques” and “Dungeons”. In the fourth series, entitled "Views of Rome", the artist in great detail depicted the sights of the great city. The extraordinary imagination of Piranesi’s works made fans of his work look for hidden meaning in his works, especially in the famous Grotesques series.

The Dungeons series to this day inspires artists and architects to create works that resonate with the motifs of the Italian etching master. The creativity of Piranesi to this day has many admirers among people whose life is connected with art. In the popular Harry Potter films, fantastic stories by Piranesi were also used.

Piranesi etchings exhibition will be open on February 24th.

Ludmila Trautmane