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Smoking fire

Maker

(artist)
1720-1778

(etcher)
1720-1778

(publisher)
18th century (Life dates)

Title

Smoking fire

Date of Production

1749 = 1760

Medium

Etching

Dimensions

Height: 54.5 cm
Width: 41.3 cm

Accession Number

G.1978.PG.44.4

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords




Related Works

Carceri

Label Text

Menacing stone walls, ponderous arches and a thick tuft of smoke dwarf the human figures in Piranesi’s fabricated prison-scape. This etching, which belongs to a series of architectural fantasies entitled Invenzioni Capricci di Carceri, builds on Piranesi’s earlier training as an architect and a baroque stage designer. Fluent parallel hatching and a wide repertoire of tonal etching bring these immense forms into a delicate equilibrium of mass and scale. As a purely figurative cityscape, Piranesi conjures both a formidable place and an ominous psychological space.

Provenance

Information not yet known or updated

Exhibition History

Bruegel to Freud: Prints from The Courtauld Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 19/06/2014-21/09/2014

Special Display - Building and Destruction - Architectural Imagery from the Courtauld's Drawings Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/10/2009-17/01/2010

Piranesi, Tiepolo, Canaletto - Etchings from the Courtauld
Collection, London & England, 11/02/1999-03/05/1999 ...More

Hogarth and Piranesi: Engravings and etchings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 09/03/1992-07/06/1992 ...Less

Inscriptions

Inscription: inscription : inscribed : printed : centre & recto : :

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