Portrait of Giovanni Battista Piranesi as an Antique Bust, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1750

This etching by piranesi’s close friend felice polanzani shows the artist, aged thirty, as a janus figure—half antique fragment and half modern architect—in his chosen role as the interpreter of the classical past for modern designers. Date: 1750. Medium: etching print. Piranesi.Bust