Christoph Frank_Piranesi, the (paranoid) visionary_Public Lecture
Academy of Architecture
Date: 4 May 2017 / 19:30 - 21:00
In 2014, Georg Kabierske, a nineteen-year old student recognized in two albums at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, the hand of none other than Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), one of the most influential artists of eighteenth-century Rome, if not Europe. The discovery, now considered the most important since 1947/48, is very likely to change our understanding of Piranesi’s work. In his lecture Christoph Frank, who was involved in the discovery from the early days, will give an overview of the two albums and their history as well as their contents. At the same time, he will try to tackle
once more the extreme attractiveness of the artistic production of Piranesi, while focusing on certain aspects of Modernism’s unrelenting interest in
Piranesi’s overwhelming vision.
Christoph Frank holds a Ph.D. in the History of the Classical Tradition from the Warburg Institute of the University of London (1994). He specializes in eighteenth-century European art and architecture while showing in recent years an ever more pronounced interest in the history of art in times of war and genocide. Since 2006 he is Full Professor at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture and founder and director since 2011 of the Institute for the
History and Theory of Art and Architecture.
