The Giorgio Cini Foundation is pleased to announce that the exhibition “The Arts of Piranesi. Architect, etcher, vedutista, designer” has been extended until 9 January 2011 on the grounds of its great popularity with Italian and foreign visitors and the very lively positive response from international critics. Conceived by Michele De Lucchi and produced by the Giorgio Cini Foundation and Factum Arte, the show opened in Le Sale del Convitto Exhibition Centre on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, on 28 August 2010. The number of visitors to the exhibition, originally only planned to run until 21 November, is already in excess of the 15.000 mark, and in recent weeks there has been a sharp rise in the average number of daily visitors to over 250 per day.

Such a long extension (over 41 extra days open) has been possible thanks to the fact that all the works on show are owned by the Giorgio Cini Foundation, notably the 300 original Piranesi etchings selected as the most representative in the almost complete Firmin Didot edition kept in the Foundation’s Institute of Art History.

Le Arti di Piranesi aims to be an original, pioneering and thought-provoking exhibition, thus fully reflecting Giambattista Piranesi’s spirit. Conceived to highlight the Venetian artist’s multifaceted interests, style and extraordinary modernity, the exhibition also consists of some contemporary works inspired by his art. They include Factum Arte’s 3D video of the Carceri d’Invenzione and seven original objects (two tripods, a vase, a candelabrum, an altar, a coffeepot and a stunning chimneypiece complete with fire irons and brazier), designed by Piranesi and made for the first time on the basis of his prints. The exhibition is further enhanced by 30 views of Rome by Gabriele Basilico, a photographer’s personal homage to the great artist.

The accent on Piranesi’s modernity and contemporary relevance is what has appealed most to the general public and critics who have seen the exhibition according to the concept of architect Michele De Lucchi: “We considered Piranesi as a man of our time and interpreted his work using the latest technology to explore the wealth of his eclecticism and his eccentric, inspired creative vein.”

More details about the exhibition in Vitruvius