Selected etchings by Piranesi, series 2 — Text and Context

Imagination vs. Record

The plate list reveals a deliberate contrast. The first eight plates include three 'Imaginary Prison Interior' views alongside designs for a bridge and a forum. Then the list shifts to Roman buildings and sites: the Forum Romanum, arches, tombs, bridges, temples, basilicas, fountains, and palaces. Reilly's introduction acknowledges that Piranesi's own designs do not show his imaginative qualities as well as his interpretations of actual buildings. This suggests the editor values Piranesi's ability to infuse real Roman structures with dramatic, almost fantastical presence—making the historical record itself a vehicle for imagination. The juxtaposition of invented prisons and measured views of the Colosseum or the Trevi Fountain sets up a productive tension between fantasy and archaeology.

An Architect's Selection

Reilly explicitly curates for architects. He notes that 'all the etchings, though of great individual interest, are not of equal value to architects.' The selection thus prioritizes plates that serve as 'a stimulus to the imagination' and 'a store of rich and expressive detail.' The plate list includes not only famous monuments but also less canonical subjects: the Ponte Salario, the Temple of Minerva Medica, and multiple vases and pedestals from the 'Vasi Candelabri.' The inclusion of chimneypieces from the 'Diverse Maniere' further emphasizes ornamental and structural detail. This is not a general survey of Piranesi's work but a targeted toolkit for architectural practice, emphasizing both grand compositional ideas and specific decorative motifs.

Scale and the Viewer's Eye

Although the excerpts do not include full descriptions of individual plates, the list itself implies a concern with scale and perspective. The inclusion of both vast interiors—the nave of St. Peter's, the interior under its dome—and small objects like an offertory box or urn creates a dramatic range. Reilly's introduction, though brief, frames Piranesi's etchings as works that 'serve' the architect by expanding the imagination. The viewer is invited to move from the colossal scale of Roman engineering to the intimate detail of a pedestal. This oscillation between the monumental and the minute is a recurring pattern in Piranesi's own compositions, and the selection preserves that dynamic, encouraging the reader to consider how scale affects architectural perception.

Readers approaching this collection should attend to the editorial framing: Reilly's introduction is not a neutral preface but a deliberate argument for how Piranesi should be used. The plate list itself is a curated sequence, not a random assortment. Noticing which buildings are included and which are omitted—and how imaginary prisons sit beside measured views—reveals the editor's architectural priorities. This edition rewards those who read the selection as a designed argument about the relationship between historical precedent and creative invention.

This edition’s talk of Piranesi’s imagined ruins reminded me of an afternoon spent among the Weston portraits—not their faces, but the gaps between them, the lives only hinted at. That same hush of knowing something incomplete. Another book once held me the same way, something about a house full of echoes, and I found it again in Biographical catalogue of the portraits at Weston, the seat of the Earl of Bradford — Reading Notes, where every name feels like a door left slightly open.