“The Arts of Piranesi” exhibition

The exhibition mounted in the Cini Foundation’s ex-Convitto (Boarding-school) showed a hitherto lesser-known Piranesi, rediscovered through modern and sophisticated technologies that lend substance to his drawings and projects. The first room presented an overview of the different phases of concreteness, conceptuality and visionariness developed by Piranesi the architect. On view here were engravings, the model of Santa Maria del Priorato, and a large-scale construction conjuring up the gloomy and mysterious atmosphere of the “prisons”, with the aid of a video by Gregoire Dupond.
The second room, centered on Piranesi the archaeologist, introduced the third, dedicated to Piranesi the designer-decorator-interior designer. Outstanding exhibits in this room were real-scale reconstructions of vases, cauldrons and candle-sticks, teapots, and a fireplace, designed by the many-sided Venetian artist. These were re-created by the Madrid workshop Factum Arte, using the presumed original materials. Also reproduced in real scale were the decorated walls of the Caffè degli Inglesi.
The last section displayed a comparison between Piranesi’s famous Vedute and a present revisitation of them through artistic photographs by Gabriele Basilico.