Piranesi's Views of Ancient Rome

Thirty grand views of the greatest monuments of ancient Rome as they stood 250 years ago and as they were recorded by master Italian etcher Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) have been selected from the collections of the Indiana University Art Museum and the IMA for this exhibition. Piranesi, a trained architectural draftsman, became impassioned by the remnants of the Roman Empire that he encountered when he arrived in Rome in 1745 and made etchings of the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the victory columns of Marcus Aurelius and Trajan and the other major ruins.