Piranesi exhibition opens in Moscow

MOSCOW – A new exhibition of 18th-century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi has opened in Moscow.

The exhibition at Moscow’s Pushkin Museum that opened Monday brought together more than 100 etchings by Piranesi along with engravings and drawings by his predecessors and followers from Russian and Italian museums.

It shows Piranesi’s vision of the architecture of ancient Rome and also offers a glance at his influence on Russia over two centuries — from the Czarist court to the Soviet empire.

The exhibition features Piranesi’s etchings depicting ruins of ancient Roman buildings alongside sketches and models of grandiose Soviet-era buildings modeled on the classical examples.

Dmitry Khanin, who owns Moscow’s Triumph Gallery, said Soviet architects studied Piranesi and used the Roman Empire as their inspiration.

“We can see that play of ideas here,” Khanin said. “One empire trying to build on the ruins of another empire, which has already drowned. It drowns too. You can’t bring back a dead empire, that’s what we learn.”

“Piranesi Before and After” is at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts from Sept. 20 to Nov. 13.