Carceri d'Inventione.

8 etchings (of 16), 41,2 x 54 cm, woven paper, signed in plate, wide margins (brown rust spots throughout, some sm. repaired tears).

Stuck by upper corners on green cardb. support.

The famous ominous series with uncanny underground vaults, rooms and stairs. The series shows the workings of Piranesi's vivid imagination, merging his architectural ambitions with his obsessive interest in antiquity and had a profound influence not only on Romanticism, but also on Surrealism and on the writings of Marguerite Yourcenar. Fine dark impressions of the second state. They consist of "The Grand Piazza", "The Giant wheel", "Prisoners on a projecting platform", "the Arch with a Shell Ornament", "The well", "The Gothic Arch", "The Pier with Chains", "The Pier with a Lamp".
Ref. Wilton-Ely I:29, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41.