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The Pier with Chains - Image 1
The Pier with Chains - Image 2

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

The Pier with Chains

1760

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Giovanni Battista Piranesi

The Pier with Chains

1760

Physical Qualities Etching, engraving, and sulphur tint or open bite with burnishing, Sheet: 465 × 623 mm. (18 5/16 × 24 1/2 in.) Plate: 403 × 546 mm. (15 7/8 × 21 1/2 in.)
Credit Line Gift of General Lawrason Riggs
Object Number 1935.1.16
Monumental space with a large banded column to the left and a lamp suspended from a pulley in the middle foreground
Print by Print: Series from Dürer to Lichtenstein

Inscribed: In lower left corner of image: "Piranesi F. XVI." In trompe-l'oeil on stone pier at center: "IMPIE / TATI / ET / MALIS / ARTIBVS" In trompe-l'oeil on plaque on tall column behind pier at center: "AD / TERROREM / INCRESCEN / AVDACIAE" In trompe-l'oeil atop sculpted pier right of center: "INFAME.SCEIVSS / RI.INFELICI.SUSPE" In graphite at lower right of sheet: "H.16ii"

Markings: WM: none

Artist

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

1719–1777

Italian, 1720-1778
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