The Exhibition Centre on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore will host an exhibition entitled The Arts of Giambattista Piranesi. Architect, etcher, antiquarian, vedutista, designer. Conceived by the architect Michele De Lucchi, the exhibition will be promoted and organised by the Giorgio Cini Foundation, in collaboration with Adam Lowe and Factum Arte, Madrid.

Conceived to illustrate the great Venetian artist’s multifaceted interests and style, the exhibition itinerary is divided into various sections on the many professions that Giambattista Piranesi exercised in the course of his career: etcher, archaeologist, engineer, antiquarian, architect and designer.

Besides around 300 original prints, selected from the complete works in the Cini Foundation graphic art collections, visitors will be able to admire a series of specially made contemporary creations, which render Piranesi’s  language, style and natural tendencies to cross over antique and modern formal repertories. The creations include Factum Arte’s reproduction of objects designed by Piranesi but never actually made, such as a vase, candelabrum, teapot, a chair, two tripods, an altar and a stunning fireplace.

Other major original features in the exhibition are a 3D simulation of the Carceri d’Invenzione,  De Lucchi’s model of the basilica of Santa Maria del Priorato, Rome (the only construction that Piranesi actually built in his lifetime) and 32 views of Rome by Gabriele Basilico, a photographer’s personal homage to the great artist.