Featured on PDR in the essay A Paper Archaeology: Piranesi’s Ruinous Fantasias

From the vast confines of his _imaginary prisons_ to the billowy scenes that comprise his _grotteschi_, the early works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi wed the exacting details of first-hand observation with the farthest reaches of artistic imagination. Susan Stewart journeys through this 18th-century engraver-architect’s paper worlds.