Gloomy prisons within the head of Piranesi

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Let me take you today in one of the sites where Art is born: Lascaux. In recent years, the auction house Galateau conducts sales of books in Montignac-Lascaux. This auction house organizes most of its other activities 100 Km away, in Limoges.

The next sale will last three days, from 26 to 28 August.

The important item of the last day, lot 2048, is one of the most stunning works from the mid-eighteenth century: Carceri d'invenzione. Roma, by Piranesi. These prisons extracted from the imagination of the artist are so gloomy. The composition is exceptionally modern, made to arouse anxiety by the profusion of details, the lack of identified marks and the labyrinthine subject.

The original edition was published in 1750. Piranesi was 30 years old. Among the other masters of the strange, Füssli was 9 years old and Blake was not born!

The collection contains 16 prints, ie an engraved frontispiece and 15 prints. It is not dated, but the set, coherent with the final version of 1761, was printed in Rome around 1790. This lot is estimated 45 K €.

I found two references for oldest editions (source: old paper issues of the Gazette de l'Hotel Drouot):
On 13 October 1989 in Paris, Ader Picard Tajan sold at 1.83 MF an unbinded group of the thirteen original prints, with the frontispiece of the second edition.
On 11 October 2001 in Paris, François de Ricqlès sold at 480 KF the sixteen prints of the second edition.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The results of that day's sales were not published on the web. This lot is not mentioned in La Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot, which however gives results of other items at far lower prices. It is likely that this lot has not been sold.