Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–78).
On the Queen's birthday (9 June) we went with Sue to see the State Library's Piranesi's Vision exhibition, the largest single collection of his work ever displayed in Australia. This was a good day to get there since marked days parking spots are free on public holidays. We chose a nearby loading zone that others had overlooked. Free entry is a genuine bonus, a guilty pleasure in the days of the end of the age of entitlement. The exhibition finishes on 22nd June, so we were not expecting to see a 2 page writeup in the Review in the Saturday Australian for 14 June. On perusal it turns out to be an edit of Bill Henson's opening speech.
It is a very attractive collection of prints, attractively presented. An accompanying audio-visual added to appreciation of the works and the culture of the days in which they were produced- o tempora o mores - particularly the grand tourists... From a couple of trips to Rome we could pick out some things we had seen on our own grand tours and recognized how much we had missed and what a different state the ruins were then from what they are now.
To jog our memory and in case the State Library takes down its splendid selection of images currently on the web I have copied a few miniatures from the website to illustrate the blog.
