Egyptian-style fireplace, two figures on the right foot, since two mummies 

Curator: It's certainly dramatic. I find this Piranesi print, "Egyptian-style fireplace, two figures on the right foot, since two mummies", so theatrical! The chimney breast looks more like a stage set. Editor: I'm intrigued by how it fuses high and low, function and representation. Look at the materiality itself: engraving as a reproductive medium, here depicting something both practical like a fireplace but adorned with ancient, almost mythic symbolism. Piranesi blurs boundaries. Curator: Mummies flank the fire! One can almost imagine warming one’s hands beside them after a long night...in a pharaoh's tomb! Though I feel a distinct chill in its geometry – that careful gradation and stark division. Editor: Yes! This juxtaposition is crucial. It challenges the supposed divide between fine art and artisanal craft. Who would even fabricate such a chiminea for this day?! By representing it, Piranesi implicates a wider sphere of production and the material world in ancient concepts of Egyptian style. Curator: And what would one burn in this temple to warmth? Ironic, too, a culture that prized preserving the dead celebrated around dancing flames. Fire, as ultimate destruction, consumes as one finds solace within its destructive aura. I think it's beautiful and morbid. Editor: Indeed. Consider, though, how the print itself circulates: copied and consumed. So Piranesi participates within processes of circulation, bringing ideas and forms to broader publics. A printed architectural phantasm, not bound to elite patronage only. Curator: Very true. Looking closer, it's amazing how many decorative programs exist together within one structure. It makes my imagination fly with how it must be received. Editor: Ultimately, I appreciate that he forces us to consider where cultural prestige originates, in royal commission or dispersed materiality, a critical consideration whether of antique art or contemporary design. Curator: A good point; thank you! I'll carry a vision of crackling flames amongst cold mummies now wherever I go.