Piranesi, Sir John Soane's Museum

Late Baroque printmaker, antiquarian and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi is famous for his etchings of 18th century Rome and antique ruins. They are remarkable for their particularly scientific approach to the direction of light and shadows, and their invention of realistic detail, such as vases, tombs etc. He also does a good line in views of imaginary prisons. 

Less famous is his series Diverse Maniere, or, to give its snappy full title in English, Diverse Ways of ornamenting chimneypieces and all other parts of houses taken from Egyptian, Etruscan, and Grecian architecture with an Apologia in defense of the Egyptian and Tuscan architecture. This was his only foray into decorative arts, and is still quite under-valued, although no longer forgotten.

Piranesi’s diverse ways were underestimated until the mid-20th century. Writing in 1910, Arthur Samuel judged them to be: ‘over-decoration, meaningless ornament, lack of self-restraint, unpleasing design, grotesque without being useful or interesting, are all crowded into schemes which it would be nearly impossible to reproduce.’ This exhibition at the Sir John Soane’s Museum sets out to prove him wrong. The team at Factum Arte have used the latest scanning and 3D printing technology at their disposal to reproduce the impossible and beautiful intricacy of objects such as coffee pots, chairs, chimneypieces, antique candelabra, tripods and altars, some originally made to coincide with the 2010 Venice Biennale of Architecture. 

These are the magnificent fantasies of a baroque twenty-something, and a particularly good fit for the Sir John Soane’s Museum. Soane met Piranesi personally while on the Grand Tour of Italy, and credited him as the major influence behind the architecture of No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, as well as admiring his graphic work - much of which was displayed in the Museum’s exhibition Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered in May 2013.

This exhibition is a brilliant look at fantastical, almost unbelievably (and unworkably) Baroque interior design, décor and objects. But it also gives an insight into the modern design processes involved in turning an 18th century etching of a coffee pot into the tangible thing. There is also an accompanying programme of events, talks and panel discussions, looking at the evolution and problems of architecture from Piranesi to the present. Impossible to reproduce, eh?