Giovanni Battista Piranesi, printmaker

Piranesi created this print as part of a series of designs for ornamenting fireplaces. Artists and artisans used sources like this one to plan projects. In Piranesi’s words, “An artist . . . must not content himself with copying faithfully the ancients, but studying their works he ought to show himself of an inventive, and, I had almost said, of a creating Genius; And by prudently combining the Grecian, the Tuscan, and the Egyptian together, he ought to open himself a road to the finding out of new ornaments and new manners.”