Charles Townley

Virtuosic and turbulent, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720 - 1778) was a visionary printmaker, architect, antiquarian and dealer. These varied aspects of his career were based on his practice of drawing, which has received comparatively little attention. The British Museum will mark the 300th anniversary of Piranesi's birth through a new exhibition focusing on his work as a draughtsman. Piranesi drawings: visions of antiquity will examine his draughtsmanship through the quality and impact of his pen and chalk studies, as well as examining how the Venetian artist's style developed throughout his career. This exhibition is the British Museum's first to focus on Piranesi as a draughtsman and celebrates the extraordinary richness of its collections of his drawings, which is one of the largest groups in the world.