Piranesi on Architecture: Argument and Summary

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, a fantastic writer on Roman architecture, argues, against the contemporaries of his time, for this type of architecture. Such contemporaries would state, on Roman architecture, that "there is no composition that is not full of superfluous ornament, and absolutely hors d'oeuvre. Everything is sacrificed for luxury, and in the end one is left with style that quickly becomes ridiculous and barbarous."[footnoteRef:1] However, Piranesi sticks with his taste, and proves, through a dialogue written by the critic himself, the importance of Roman architecture. Thus, this paper will give a brief summary of the afore-mentioned dialogue and the argument presented. [1: Source given by customer -- Thoughts on Architecture by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Translation by Michaels Nonis and Mark Epstein) ]

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The other man is Didascalo, who is supposed to represent the voice of Piranesi himself. According to this same introduction, "Didascalo reduces ad absurdum Protopiro's argument in favor of the Vitruvian principles of law, reason and simplicity and demonstrates that its logical conclusion is an architecture of monotony, devoid of any artistic originality."[footnoteRef:3] [2: Source given by customer -- Thoughts on Architecture by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Translation by Michaels Nonis and…