Five friezes 

Editor: We're looking at "Five Friezes," an ink and engraving drawing by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. What strikes me immediately is this blend of lightness and classical formality, the almost playful cherubs contrasting with the rather stoic, stylized animals below. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see Piranesi the visionary architect, even though this is ‘simply’ a drawing. Look how he plays with perspective and layering even within these relatively small friezes! Imagine these as possible decorations for his fantastical buildings… it’s a dreamscape rendered with the precision of an engraver. Editor: A dreamscape, that's a great way to put it. It also seems so fragmented, disparate elements jammed together. Curator: Ah, but isn't that the human experience? We're all collages of experiences, memories, and desires, thrown together, trying to make sense of it all. Piranesi understood that chaos inherently. These friezes feel like glimpses into his mind, revealing half-formed architectural ambitions through fragmented symbols. Editor: So, is it almost like he is not making an intention statement, but just…visualizing what he feels without caring about the logic behind it. Curator: Exactly! There is that intuitive feeling. And maybe by stringing these visions along the linear format of a frieze he is implying they are sequential fragments of some long-lost narrative. Ultimately though, these friezes capture an architect playing within the imagined realm of his most cherished influences, Romanesque art and Mythology, with freedom beyond the limitations of any commission. What do you think, did the drawing open your perspective? Editor: It definitely did. I initially saw chaos, now I appreciate that maybe it's less chaos and more like…a conscious embracing of artistic freedom, right?