The Lion Bas-Reliefs, plate 5 of Carceri d’invenzioni (Imaginary Prisons)

Carceri d’Invenzione is a series of invented prison scenes by the great Italian etcher Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Large-scale, virtuoso compositions, these prints brim with dramatic detail and impossible architectural intricacy. Piranesi allowed his inventiveness free rein and in the process influenced many subsequent generations of artists, including M. C. Escher, the Dutch twentieth-century master of mathematical illusion. (“Escaping the Ordinary: Artistic Imagination in Early Modern Prints,” co-curated by Andrew C. Weisologel and Brittany Rubin, presented at the Johnson Museum January 21-June 11, 2017)Trained as an architect, today Piranesi is primarily known for two series of etchings, known as the vedute (the views) and the carceri (the prisons). While the first series were images based on views of Roman ruins, the latter, from which this etching comes, is entirely fictitious. The prisons are fantastic creations, each a snapshot of an endless, infinite complex. It may be a cliché to call the carceri Kafkaesque, but they do seem like a physical manifestation of the courthouse of The Trial, in which the protagonist Joseph K. gets hopelessly lost. Regardless, the entire series is a testament to Piranesi’s architectural imagination and his ability to conjure incredible space in his drawings. (“Imprint/ In Print,” curated by Nancy E. Green with assistance from Christian Waibel ’17 and presented at the Johnson Museum August 8 – December 20, 2015)