Observations on the Letter of Monsieur Mariette (Texts & Documents)
Contributors: John Wilton-Ely (Introduction); Caroline Beamish (Translator); David Britt (Translator)
Publisher: Getty Trust Publications: Getty Research Institute
Published: October 8, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 168
ISBN-13: 9780892366361
Subjects: Architecture; History of art: BCE to c 500 CE, ancient & classical world; BCE to c 500 CE; Art; Aesthetics; General; Ancient World; Criticism; European; History - General; Art / History / European; Mariette, Pierre Jean,; Architecture, Classical; Early works to 1800
Description: "The engraver and designer Giovanni Battista Piranesi published this lively three-part defense of Roman architectural "invention" in 1765, just as the "beautiful and noble simplicity" of ancient Greek art was becoming a tenet of Western aesthetics.

An impassioned plea for a Roman-Style eclecticism that draws freely on all artistic forms and traditions, Piranesi's Observations anticipates the contemporary debate between devotees of a rational, minimal architecture and advocates of an architecture rich in ornament and historical references."--BOOK JACKET.