Opening Wednesday At Cantor: Final Works by Celebrated Artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi

News from the Cantor Arts Center:

A major exhibition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s last master works—15 exquisitely rendered drawings made in 1777 of three ancient Greek temples in Paestum, southern Italy—opens at the Cantor Arts Center on August 19.

Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered, which also includes prints and rare books of the period, sheds new light on this celebrated 18th-century artist’s working method and on the considerable impact of his oeuvre on 18th- and 19th-century architectural taste.

The Cantor is the only West-Coast venue for this exhibition, which originated at Sir John Soane’s Museum, London.

While Piranesi (1720–1778) is primarily known as the creator of such famous print series as the Vedute di Roma and especially theCarceri d’Invenzione, this exhibition focuses on some of his rare drawings. The Paestum drawings are Piranesi’s most extensive body of work devoted to a single topographical site.

Related ProgramsPanel Discussion: “Drawn to Build: Architectural Representation in the Digital Age”
Thursday, October 28, 5:30 pm, Cantor auditorium
Two prominent architects from Europe and the United States will discuss the role of the architectural drawing—both analog and digital—as a tool in the design process and as an object worth collecting and putting on display.

Piranesi Symposium: Friday, November 13, organized by Stanford’s Department of Art & Art History, details to be announced.

The Cantor Arts Center is open six days a week, Wednesday–Monday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m; closed Tuesday. Admission is free. The Cantor is located on the Stanford campus, off Palm Drive at Museum Way. Parking is free after 4 p.m. weekdays and all day on weekends and major holidays. Information: 650-723-4177, museum.stanford.edu.

IMAGES ABOVE, left to right, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italy, 1720–1778), made in 1777, from the collection of Sir John Soane’s Museum:Paestum, Italy: Exterior of the Temple of Neptune from the North-East. Red chalk, pencil, brown and grey washes, pen and ink, white highlights
Paestum, Italy: Temple of Neptune, View of the Interior from the West. Black chalk, pencil, brown and grey washes, pen and ink
Paestum, Italy: Basilica with the Temple of Neptune in the right foreground. Exteriors. Black chalk, pencil, brown and grey washes, pen and ink

Paestum, Italy: Interior of the Basilica, from the West. Pencil, brown and grey washes, pen and ink