G.B. PIRANESI

Piranesi was born in Mogliano Veneto in 1720. He starts to study as an architect in 1735 under Matteo Lucchesi, his uncle, and continues with Giovanni Antonio Scalfarotto.
Then he decides to work in Venice. Thanks to his activity as a sketcher he knows the importance of the decorative art.
From 1740 he was in Rome with Marco Foscarini, the Venetian envoy to the Vatican and he resides in the Palazzo Venezia.
On this occasion Piranesi comes in contact with the architecture of Rome and he continues his studies under the Valeriani brothers.
He suddenly realizes that Rome is not the right place where he can earns his living as an architect, while painting, thanks to the tourists, represents a great alternative. He associates with the Sicilian artist Giuseppe Valsi.
In this period he startsPrima di Architetture e Prospettive which is published in 1743. Between 1744 and1747 he resides in Venice where he probably meets Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. In those years he works with Carlo Nolli in Rome and he publishes Varie Vedute di Roma Antica e Moderna he also begins the first series of Carceri.
In the last months of 1747 he starts his most important work Vedute di Roma, but also Antichità romane de' tempi della repubblica e de' primi imperatori.
Piranesi makes a profound analysis of the monuments in Rome and he draws many of them, collecting in this way a lot of material that come together in different publication. In 1751 are published Le Magnifiche di Roma while in 1752 is the time of Raccolta di varie vedute di Roma. In 1752 he also get married with Angela Pasquini. The year after are published the Trofei di Ottaviano Augusto.
Between 1758 and 1759was born his san.
In 1761 he publishes the Carceri and the full edition of Della Magnificenza ed architettura de' romani and he becomes a member of the Academy of San Luca. In 1764 he receives from the cardinal Giovanni Battista Rezzonico the task of restore the church of Santa Maria del Priorato, meanwhile he publishes other works. In 1766 the restoration is completed and the cardinal Rezzonico orders other works for the Palazzo del Quirinale. In 1770 he starts to visit the ruins of Pompei and Ercolano and in 1777-78 Piranesi publishes Different vues de Pesto, a collection of views of Paestum. He died the 9th of November of 1778 .