Kitchen utensils 

Giovanni Battista Piranesi produced this engraving of kitchen utensils in 18th-century Italy. Here we see pots, pans, and cooking implements arranged as if they’d just been unearthed. In fact, they’re labeled as “kitchenware of various forms from Pompeii,” an ancient Roman city that had only recently been excavated. Piranesi was part of a new movement in Europe, neoclassicism, which looked to the art and culture of the ancient world for inspiration. Pompeii offered a unique window into that world. By depicting everyday objects, Piranesi democratized history, suggesting that even the most humble aspects of daily life in ancient Rome were worthy of artistic attention. Yet, it’s important to remember that Piranesi was not simply documenting the past. He was also shaping it. His prints, widely circulated and collected, helped to create a vision of ancient Rome that would influence art and design for generations to come. Further archival research into the contemporary archeological and aesthetic trends could offer a richer understanding of this image.