The Grand Piazza

Traces of Piranesi’s abandoned first draft—faint, intermittent straight lines that crisscross the background— reveal his improvisational working method. Using printing plates as sketch pads, torturing them with corrosive acids, and radically reworking them, Piranesi fully exploited the liberties afforded by etching. He ranks among the select company of artists—Rembrandt is another—who have done the same.