{"id":335,"date":"2025-08-04T17:13:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T17:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museum.middcreate.net\/projects\/visions-of-grandeur\/?page_id=335"},"modified":"2025-09-04T20:16:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:16:26","slug":"piranesi-as-a-proto-archaeologist","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/museum.middcreate.net\/projects\/visions-of-grandeur\/piranesi-as-a-proto-archaeologist\/","title":{"rendered":"Piranesi as a Proto-Archaeologist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

The modern empirical discipline of archaeology did not exist in the eighteenth-century. Nevertheless, Piranesi may be considered a \u201cproto-archaeologist\u201d because, due to his training, he had an informed interest in the architecture, engineering, and construction of the ancient ruins, well beyond the picturesque. He was keen, moreover, to document and publish his findings.<\/p>\n

Especially in his four-volume Antichit\u00e0 Romane [Roman Antiquities]<\/em>, published in 1756, Piranesi represented Ancient Roman structures as he found or excavated them together with reconstructions of what he thought they looked like originally, sometimes taking creative liberties. He created technical representations such as plans and sections that routinely included a scale bar.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The modern empirical discipline of archaeology did not exist in the eighteenth-century. Nevertheless, Piranesi may be considered a \u201cproto-archaeologist\u201d because, due to his training, he had an informed interest in the architecture, engineering, and construction of the ancient ruins, well beyond the picturesque. He was keen, moreover, to document and publish his findings. Especially in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-chapter-3-template-v2","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":true,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-335","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"kubio_ai_page_context":{"short_desc":"","purpose":"general"},"yoast_head":"\nPiranesi as a Proto-Archaeologist - Piranesi: Visions of Grandeur<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/museum.middcreate.net\/projects\/visions-of-grandeur\/piranesi-as-a-proto-archaeologist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Piranesi as a Proto-Archaeologist - Piranesi: Visions of Grandeur\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The modern empirical discipline of archaeology did not exist in the eighteenth-century. Nevertheless, Piranesi may be considered a \u201cproto-archaeologist\u201d because, due to his training, he had an informed interest in the architecture, engineering, and construction of the ancient ruins, well beyond the picturesque. He was keen, moreover, to document and publish his findings. 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