Prisoners on a Projecting Platform

published 1750/1758

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Associated Names
Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Artist, Venetian, 1720 - 1778

This is a drawing of an architectural space with arches and structures. The image features towering stone arches, bridges, steps, balustrades, and a large suspended sphere. Light and shadow create a dramatic atmosphere, highlighting stone textures and the complexity of the composition. The structures appear labyrinthine, guiding the viewer's gaze through winding paths and upward towards light filtering from above. Reflects Giovanni Battista Piranesi's style of grandiose imaginary prisons with elaborate architectural forms.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession Number

    1946.21.395

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Robison 1986, no. 36, State i/vi


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

one of set of 13 prints (NGA 1946.21.389-401) purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Philadelphia, from William H. Schab, 4 October 1946 (JYAE; 46.193); gift to NGA, 1946.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1918

  • Focillon 33.

1922

  • Hind 10.

1986

  • Robison, Andrew. Piranesi Early Architectural Fantasies: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Etchings. Washington: National Gallery of Art; Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Watermarks

Fleur-de-lis (Robison 5)

Wikidata ID

Q65072797

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