Perspective as an artistic tool of composition in the engravings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi's engravings, particularly those depicting the Basilica di San Paolo Fuori le Mura and the Pantheon, employ perspective as a compositional tool to create space-dimensional representations. This study reveals that Piranesi's approach differs from his predecessors and contemporaries by breaking down architectural information into interrelated orthographic views, which are then used to form a cohesive spatial representation in the viewer's mind. The research compares one of Piranesi's engravings with a SketchUp perspective model and architect-drawn layouts, demonstrating how structural elements on the plane interact to convey depth and dimension. This innovative method challenges traditional notions of compositional logic in graphic works.

Chernaya, E. (2016). Perspective as an artistic tool of composition in the engravings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Architecture and Engineering, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.23968/2500-0055-2016-1-2-3-18