Celebrating Piranesi in Melbourne

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) was a print-maker, architect, designer, antiquarian and firebrand. While his images of ruined temples and imaginary prisons appealed to the Romantic sensibility of artists and writers in the 19th century, he was also very influential as a revolutionary designer.

An exhibition called ‘The Piranesi Effect’ will be on display at the University’s Ian Potter Museum of Art and will use contemporary art as a guide to understanding Piranesi. 

Piranesi’s works will be juxtaposed with Roman and Etruscan antiquities, also works by contemporary artists Rick Amor, Michael Graf, Mira Gojak, Andrew Hazewinkel, Peter Robinson, Jan Senbergs and Simon Terrill.

The contemporary works have been chosen not because they are directly influenced by Piranesi but rather because they pick up on and amplify elements which are fundamental to how those 18th century Piranesi works achieve their effect.

“This exhibition will draw attention to Piranesi’s dramatic use of scale, viewpoint, lighting and perspective,” says guest curator Jenny Long.

“It also emphasises his very contemporary attitude to how artworks are made in conversation with the past, his enthusiasm for breaking the rules and his strategy of layering and assemblage and piling up of fragments.

“The configuration of works in the space will help draw attention to the rich materiality of Piranesi’s prints. By emphasising these different qualities through contemporary works it is hoped viewers will feel they are in some way inside a Piranesi print as they move through the exhibition space. 

“The 21st century artists jolt us into seeing Piranesi in a new way, and the Piranesi works enrich our reaction to the contemporary works.

“The juxtaposition of works helps reveal something of how Piranesi’s images work their discordant charm on the viewer. Elements in his darkly energetic prints resonate with the dynamic baroque lines of Mira Gojak, the dramatic use of viewpoint by Simon Terrill, or aspects of scale in the works by Peter Robinson.”

A symposium titled, Piranesi and the impact of the late Baroque will feature the notable Piranesi expert Professor Luigi Ficacci, Emeritus Soprintendete of Bologna, Italy and a public lecture by Australian artist photographer Bill Henson over 27 and 28 February, as part of a conference at the Australian Institute of Art History at the University of Melbourne.

A curator and artist tours of ‘The Piranesi Effect’ is scheduled for Saturday 22 February and ‘Rome: Piranesi’s Vision’, will also be complemented by a full program of events, including ‘Roman Piazza’, a pizza and bocce day, the Italian Cultural Day in April and a sumptuous New South publication titled Piranesi’s Grandest Tour: from Europe to Australia by Dr Colin Holden, co-curator of Rome: Piranesi’s Vision.

Meanwhile, the largest exhibition of Piranesi’s work ever to be seen in Australia, with over 100 significant works focusing on superb prints from his ‘Vedute di Roma’, will be held at the State Library of Victoria until 6 July. 

Curated by Dr Colin Holden and drawing on rich State collections, this exhibition shows how Piranesi’s work captures the essence of Rome and the era of the Grand Tour with his elaborate images revealing a city of extreme contrasts: grand churches, imposing palaces and monumental ruins peopled by aristocrats, tourists, priests and beggars. 

www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/ 

www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/rome-piranesis-vision