About The Artist:
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
An Italian etcher, archaeologist, designer, theorist, and architect, Giovanni Battista Piranesi was born in Venice. His uncle, a designer and hydraulics engineer, taught him the art of drawing. During his early years, he studied stage design and intricate systems of perspective composition. Piranesi's prints and drawings reveal his talent for combining dramatic perspectives and architectural fantasies. When Piranesi was twenty, he moved to Rome...
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About The Medium:
Etching
The printing process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In traditional pure etching, a metal (usually copper, zinc or steel) plate is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with a pointed etching needle where they want a line to appear in the finished piece, exposing the bare metal. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper (often moistened to soften it). The paper picks up the ink from the etched lines, making a print.
