The Smoking Fire

published 1800/1809

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Associated Names
Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Artist, Venetian, 1720 - 1778

This is a drawing of an interior space with arches, staircases, and towering architectural elements. The scene includes grand, arched structures that overlap and intertwine with intricate railings and columns. The composition shows architectural details like ropes, chains, and large pieces of machinery or scaffolding within the arches. A complex array of lines and shades create deep contrast in the space. Light filters through high arched windows, illuminating the stonework with shadows and light.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.6991

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Robison 1986, no. 32, State vi/vii

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1934

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

1961

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

1965

  • Drolleries and Demons: Six Centuries of 'Fantastic' Prints, IBM Gallery, New York, NY, 1965, no. 34 (as "The Prison. Plate 6")

Bibliography

1918

  • Focillon 29.

1922

  • Hind 6.

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.

Wikidata ID

Q65020179

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