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
Rena Hoisington, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Print by Print: Series from Dürer to Lichtenstein," October 30, 2011-March 25, 2012.
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
