Object number2024.11.1

The Skeletons

Portfolio/Seriesfrom the series Grotteschi (Grotesques)

Date1750-1759

Artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778)

CultureItalian

MediumEtching

EditionEdition 2 of 2, First Issue

DimensionsPlate: 15 1/4 x 21 1/4 in. (38.7 x 54 cm)
Sheet: 20 5/8 x 29 in. (52.4 x 73.7 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, gift of Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson, by exchange

On View

Not on view

Period18th c

Classification(s)

Catalogue raisonnéFocillon 12.20; Hind 80.24; Robison 116.21 ii/v; Wilton-Ely I.41.21BibliographyNevola, Francesco. Giovanni Battista Piranesi: the Grotteschi: the early years, 1720 to 1750. Rome: Ugo Bozzi Editore, 2009

Vassar Exhibitions

Chronostasia: Select Acquisitions 2020–2025

Label TextUpon his return from Venice to Rome, Giovanni Battista Piranesi etched the Grotteschi: decorative compositions of imaginary ruins and hybrid forms. Light, sketched strokes reflect his encounter with Tiepolo’s Scherzi di Fantasia (1750–60), yet Piranesi applies this Venetian technique to more corrosive ends—foliage overtakes stone, classical fragments scatter without coherent assembly. These are fantastical scenes of logic yielding to excess, drawing from his training in Venetian stage design. The Skeletons includes the famous statue known as the Farnese Hercules, viewed from behind; a zodiac wheel at upper right; and scattered ruins of ancient sculpture and bones. The Monumental Tablet presents an enormous stone slab surrounded by cloth, skulls, an hourglass, and Medusa shield, among other ornamentation. Both prints achieve depth through multiple bitings, a technique of repeated immersion in acid baths, the medium miming the corrosion it depicts. As critic Andreas Huyssen argues, Piranesi’s etchings of ruins focus on “the intertwining of nature and architecture in decay,” skewing classical into spectacle.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu