page_title: Giovanni Battista Piranesi
section_title: The Prisons (Carceri)
hierarchical_section_title: Giovanni Battista Piranesi / The Prisons (Carceri)
caption_attribution_description: First plate in the first edition of Le Carceri d'Invenzione
context_page_description: Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons". He was the father of Francesco Piranesi and Laura Piranesi.
context_section_description: The Prisons  (Carceri d'invenzione or 'Imaginary Prisons'), is a series of 16 prints produced in first and second states that show enormous subterranean vaults with stairs and mighty machines. The series was started in 1745. The first state prints were published in 1750 and consisted of 14 etchings, untitled and unnumbered, with a sketch-like look. The original prints were 16" x 21". For the second publishing in 1761, all the etchings were reworked and numbered I–XVI (1–16). Numbers II and V were new etchings to the series. Numbers I to IX were all done in portrait format (vertical), while X to XVI were landscape format (horizontal+). 
  In the second publishing, some of the illustrations appear to have been edited to contain (likely deliberate) impossible geometries.
caption: First plate in the first edition of Le Carceri d'Invenzione
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