The Smoking Fire, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons) 1744 - 1755

Curator: Immediately, I'm struck by a sense of confinement. The heavy linework and oppressive architecture press in. Editor: We're looking at "The Smoking Fire" from Giovanni Battista Piranesi's "Carceri d'invenzione," or "Imaginary Prisons" series, crafted between 1744 and 1755. This print, a combination of etching and engraving, currently resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator: Prisons indeed! Look at the dizzying array of arches and staircases, the oppressive weight of the imagined architecture. What kind of symbols were at play here? Editor: Piranesi masterfully utilizes classical motifs. However, he distorts and exaggerates them to evoke a sense of unease. Consider how the architectural elements of antiquity usually represented order, power, and civic virtue are turned into something monstrous and chaotic. There's a sense of perpetual incompleteness. Curator: And the fire… not a comforting hearth, but an ominous presence. The wisps of smoke rising throughout suggests industry and possible decay. It's not about literal imprisonment, but psychological torment, surely? Editor: Precisely! The "Carceri" are viewed as allegories of the mind, reflecting a state of anxiety. Piranesi, as an artist deeply connected to both Venice and Rome, expresses perhaps anxieties relating to his own personal and professional ambitions within shifting artistic tastes, patronage, and the grand institutions that governed the lives of artists in that time. Curator: I suppose his work stands as a powerful testament to art's capacity to express disquiet. This isn’t merely a cityscape; it's a mental landscape, reflecting humanity's capacity for self-imprisonment through ambition or doubt. Editor: True, a disturbing look at how ambition, power and legacy, might ultimately lead one down a rabbit hole.