# The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons), in Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi made this in about 1749–50, aged about 24. It is now at The Met in New York.

Our note:

> A great circular tower rises within a cavernous prison, ringed by stairs, galleries and beams that lead nowhere certain. This impression is of the first state, printed around 1749–50, when Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons were still airy and sketch-like, etched with a free, rapid line that owes much to stage design.

[Read the full label](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-round-tower-from-carceri-d-invenzione-imaginary-prisons-met-337725#about-work)

## The work

- Date: ca. 1749–50
- Medium: Etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing; first state of four (Robison)
- Dimensions: Sheet: 24 13/16 x 19 1/2 in. (63 x 49.5 cm) Plate: 21 7/16 x 16 5/16 in. (54.5 x 41.5 cm)
- Type: Prints
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 37.45.3(27)
- Licence: CC0 1.0

## The artist

[Giovanni Battista Piranesi](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/giovanni-battista-piranesi), Italian, 1720–1778

Piranesi trained in Venice as an architect and stage designer before moving to Rome in 1740, where he spent the rest of his life.

4 works in the collection.

## Walk on

- [Giovanni Battista Piranesi's contemporaries](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/artist/contemporaries-of-giovanni-battista-piranesi?hang=749) (8 works)
- [More Italian Settecento](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/style/italian-settecento?hang=749) (25 works)
- [18th-century Italy](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/era/18-italy?hang=749) (49 works)

## Get it

- [Print this work](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-round-tower-from-carceri-d-invenzione-imaginary-prisons-met-337725#print)
- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1030.jpg?dl=1
- [The work's page](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-round-tower-from-carceri-d-invenzione-imaginary-prisons-met-337725)