Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Piranesi Giovanni Battista)

(1720-1778)
Born October 4, 1720 in Mogliano, near Mestre. He studied in Venice with his father, who was a stonemason, his uncle - an engineer and architect, and some other masters. In 1740 and 1744 he studied engraving techniques under Giuseppe Vasi and Felice Polantsani in Rome, where in 1743 he published his first series of engravings The first part of the architectural and future constructions (La parte prima di Architetture e Prospettive). He then returned briefly to Venice, and from 1745 he settled permanently in Rome. By the end of his life (he died on Nov. 9, 1778), Piranesi became one of the most famous citizens of Rome.
The first success came to him after the establishment of four large engravings Grotesque (1745) and a series of fourteen sheets Fantasy on themes prisons (1745, 1761). They were filled with the artistic ease and brilliance that made the glory of the Venetian etchings 18 in. The works of Piranesi always valued by collectors as a manifestation of the amazing creativity and the highest artistic skill. In late 1740-ies the artist began work on his most famous series of engravings of Rome Types. He published several volumes of research and reconstruction of almost all the famous buildings in Rome and its environs. In the last years of life Piranesi performed measurements and made drawings and engravings Paestum temples, they were published posthumously by his son, Francesco. The main work of Piranesi in the field of architecture was the restructuring of the church of Santa Maria Aventine (1764-1765).