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Open 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Visit
Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Admission is always free

6th and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20565

Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights
Through September 5
Exhibitions & Events
America’s 250th

Celebrating American art and artists
Art & Artists
Open Call

Artists Reimagining the Collection
Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

The Round Tower

1780s

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Associated Names

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Artist, Venetian, 1720 - 1778

This is a drawing of an intricate, labyrinthine architectural space full of stairs and arches. The drawing depicts a complex environment of interwoven staircases, grand arches, and a multitude of architectural elements. The composition is dominated by dark lines and shaded areas. The play of light and shadow enhances the atmosphere of this architectural fantasy. The space is enclosed yet feels expansive with many different levels and angles at play. The style is reminiscent of etchings capturing detailed and textured imagined interiors.

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Artwork overview

Medium

etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing [date should be read as "published 1780s"]
Credit Line

Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number

1943.3.6989
Catalogue Raisonné

Robison 1986, no. 30, State v/vi

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1934

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, 1934.

1950

Master Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, circulated by the American Federation of Arts to 11 venues (California Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA; Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Museum of Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Grand Rapids Art Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI; The J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA; Museum of Art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO; Norton Gallery and School of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; Watkins Institute, Nashville, TN; and Memphis Academy of Art, Memphis, TN), 1950-1952, no cat.

1961

Piranesi Prints, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1961.

Bibliography

1918

Focillon 26.

1922

Hind 3.

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

BRACCIANO (Robison 59)

Wikidata ID

Q65020176

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