Il PArCo di Piranesi

Journey through the engravings of G.B. Piranesi di Palatino, Roman Forum and Colosseum.

Giambattista Piranesi (Venice 1720 - Rome 1778), was an architect, engraver, archaeologist, Venetian by birth and Roman by adoption.

The preservation of the charm of an ancient Rome on the threshold of modernity, and before the advent of the photographic technique, owes much to the work of Piranesi, who found extraordinary diffusion and success all over the world thanks to serial reproduction, made possible at the time by the technique of etching print.

And in particular, the engravings of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill became the icons par excellence of the monuments of that Rome that has not yet disappeared but rather is in the process of re-emerging from the past, as it was seen and experienced by travelers in the eighteenth century.

On the occasion of the three hundredth anniversary of Piranesi's birth, therefore, the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum, in collaboration with the Central Institute for Graphics and with the contribution of Kuwait Petroleum Italia, wanted to create an application that allows the virtual exploration of a '' wide selection of views dedicated to the monuments of the PArCo, highlighting their graphic and historical peculiarities with in-depth texts. The images of the current state of the places have been placed side by side with the views, specially created, to allow the comparison even to interested users who will not be able to go there.

The App is in fact conceived both as a guide to use when visiting the PArCO, and as a journey through time to experience anywhere in the world with your smartphone or tablet, a fundamental possibility in times of pandemic. In fact, the genius of Piranesi will take care of leading users away to the heart of eighteenth-century Rome, along an itinerary that is familiar to many but always full of surprises and details to discover or rediscover.

The experience is completed by a large gallery of images of the monuments portrayed in other eras and two in-depth videos, "The etching" and "Reprinting Piranesi", created by the PArCo at the ICG Printing House and dedicated respectively to the etching technique. and the rare event reprint of an engraving of the Colosseum valley from an original matrix in Piranesi.

The application, totally free, provides for the translation into LIS and the audio reading of the entire textual apparatus.

The Application was created in collaboration with the Central Institute for Graphics (MiBACT) and thanks to the contribution of Kuwait Petroleum Italia.