His education was motivated by an insatiable and constant interest in Classic art, Classic and contemporary literature, and the works, decorations and inscriptions of Piranesi.
Broadly speaking, the Forum recognized in Piranesi's etchings was transformed to the forum we know today.
By the late eighteenth century, with brilliant exceptions like Piranesi and Tiepolo, most etchings were reproductive or illustrative.
However, the depictions of nightmarish wilderness amidst the detritus of civilization was a thematic adopted by painters such as Salvatore Rosa and Michelangelo Cerquozzi, and reappears in the capricci (whimsical and fantastic monuments, ruins, or buildings) of Piranesi.
However, many were also excavated in the 18th century by antiquities dealers such as Piranesi and Gavin Hamilton to sell to Grand Tourists and antiquarians such as Charles Towneley, and so are in major antiquities collections elsewhere in Europe and North America.
The magnificent interior decor by Jacques Gondouin, inspired by Piranesi, is an important step forward in 18th century taste, but was profoundly distorted by changes under the Second French Empire, although the grands salons d'apparat and the Galerie Dorée still maintain some of the original elements.
His architectural fantasies owe a clear debt to Piranesi and play upon historical, literary and mythological themes with a feeling for the sublime that is the equal of his contemporaries J. M. W. Turner and John Martin.
In Rome, from September 1754 to December 1756, half the customary three years, they were exposed to the ferment of the new neoclassical style and took part, with Marie-Joseph Peyre, in the archaeological excavations of the Baths of Diocletian; their speculative reconstructions of the complex attracted the attention of Piranesi.
Some of them resemble a more barren and finely detailed Piranesi.
Francesco Piranesi (1756 or 1758–1810), Italian engraver and architect, son of Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Both Piranesi and the young English architect George Dance the Younger were able to climb up and make accurate measurements; Dance had "a Model cast from the finest Example of the Corinthian order perhaps in the whole World", as he reported to his father.
There are several fine chimneypieces, the best being by Piranesi.
Piranesi | Francesco Piranesi | Cover of ''Fängelsestaden'' featuring an etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi |
Piranesi accompanied his father on two trips to the ancient Roman ruins in Pompei, Paestum and Ercolano, first in 1770, and again in 1778.
•
The Emperor Napoleon came to his help, issuing an imperial decree granting the sum of 300,000 French francs, upon the condition that Piranesi dedicate himself solely to his engraving work, then considered the best in Europe.
He traveled frequently to Italy and was associated with Piranesi in Rome, when he came to the attention of Swedish King Gustavus III, who offered him a two-year contract as director of scenic decorations at the new Stockholm Opera founded by the King two years earlier.
Magnificence therefore becomes the key to understanding Piranesi’s entire work be it artistic of theoretical (Mario Perniola 2009: 95).