Piranesi. The Falls at Tivoli
This etching illustrates a little known side of Piranesi’s talent, namely, his ability
to etch pure landscape
The Falls of the Teverone (the ancient Anio) at Tivoli are fifteen miles east-northeast of Rome. Tivoli was the favorite place of residence of many Romans—Mæcenas, Augustus, Hadrian—and the ruins of both Hadrian’s Villa and the Villa of Mæcenas are still to be seen.
Size of the original etching, 18⅞ × 28⅛ inches
The fact that our conduct is determined not by concepts, but by mental images which motive emotion, although at first it appear paradoxical, will certainly be recognized by any one who is willing to study, if only for a short time, his own mental experiences. This truth was realized with such force as to be made the base of their entire spiritual discipline by that notable Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, and his followers, the Jesuit fathers, who have understood the complex and subtle mechanism of the human soul more profoundly and exhaustively than any other body of men which has ever existed. In classic times Horace was cognizant of this peculiarity of man’s mind when he wrote that the emotions are aroused more slowly by objects which are presented to consciousness by hearing than by those made known by sight. Burke, it is true, disputes this dictum of the Latin poet, on the ground that, among the arts, poetry certainly arouses emotions more intense than those derived from painting. Although this is probably true, for reasons which he details and which it would be wearisome to reiterate here, it is certain that poetry moves us exactly in ratio to the power it possesses of creating vivid images for our contemplation, while it is certainly doubtful whether any emotion excited through hearing surpasses in vivacity that experienced on suddenly seeing certain objects or situations.
All artists at all worthy of the name are, therefore, possessed to a certain degree of imagination. It is the gift which makes visible to them whatever they embody in words, pictures, sounds, or sculpture. If totally deprived of it, they could create nothing, for no man can express what does not appear to him as having a real existence for at least the moment of creation. In the domain of art, imagination, in its lower forms, is merely the power of recollecting and reproducing things endowed with material existence; but in its highest development, when handling the conceptions and emotions of an original mind, it acquires the power of actual creation, and is inseparably attached to the loftiest acts of which man is capable.
Piranesi. The Falls at Tivoli
Among later works there are few better expressions of that feeling for nature in its wildest aspects, which, practically unknown until the time of Rousseau, is now considered the speciality of modern artists. That Piranesi appreciated this side of nature, and was able to express its poetry and power, could be proved by this plate alone.
Size of the original etching, 18¾ × 28⅛ inches