The Italian Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) is considered to be the greatest print artist of his time. For the first time in a decade, a large Piranesi exhibition will be shown in the Netherlands. The Kunsthal is presenting over seventy large-format prints by Piranesi from the impressive graphic art collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. As an artist, Piranesi became known in the eighteenth century for his ‘Vedute di Roma’, an extensive series of etchings of impressive views of the ruins and monuments of Rome. In his famous series of prints featuring imaginary prisons, the ‘Carceri d’Invenzione’, Piranesi – who was originally an architect – expressed his spatial fantasies. Prints of rare quality are shown from both these series, as well as eight colossal books that highlight the dizzying imagination of Piranesi – as an artist, researcher and designer. This exhibition is part of a series of three exhibitions at the Kunsthal in the context of the city-wide project ‘Boijmans Next Door’.
