Grotteschi (Piranesi)  

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Grotteschi (ca. 1748) [1] are a set of four prints by Italian engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi. It is part of the Opere Varie (1750).

"Created when Piranesi returned to Rome after a stay in Venice, where he is said to have worked briefly with Tiepolo, the four etchings of the Grotteschi series reflect Piranesi's encounter with the remarkable prints of the famous Venetian painter. In The Skeletons, the light, sketchy strokes of varying lengths found in some areas of the print recall Tiepolo's technique, while the combination of skulls, vegetation, and crumbling ruins, as well as the ambiguity of the subject, are characteristics shared with Tiepolo's Scherzi (1976.537.19) and Capricci series. A few direct quotations from Tiepolo are seen in the Grotteschi—the smiling herm who appears here and in The Triumphal Arch has its source in one of Tiepolo's Scherzi. Whether Piranesi worked for Tiepolo or merely became acquainted with him, it appears likely that the older artist introduced Piranesi to the work of his favorite seventeenth-century printmakers. The skeletons in this print recall certain etchings by Stefano della Bella (59.570.379[3]), while Salvator Rosa (17.50.17–85)—who also depicted piles of bones, ruins, and smoking urns—provides a model for the scribbled lines and webs of crosshatching that first appear in this series."[2]

"Shortly before 1750, Italian architect and printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi treated time, fame, death, and decay in a remarkable series of four etchings that are now known at the Grotteschi. These etchings are like dreamy sketches of the artist’s meditations on antiquity, organic decay, and architectural ruination. The four prints in this series of “grotesques” have been conventionally titled The Skeletons, The Triumphal Arch[3], The Tomb of Nero[4], and The Monumental Tablet[5]. The Spencer recently acquired The Tomb of Nero, a fantastic collision of images that seem to float in a cloudbank."[6]

See also

• Carceri
• Dream art
• Grottesche