Round Tower

This print is sheet 3 of the series “Prisons”.

In comparison with the first prison designs, which also appeared in the 18th century, Piranesi’s imaginary constructions are striking for their irrationality. A keen scholar of ancient architecture, he invests them with fine proportions, yet more convincingly depicts chaos, something that still repelled his contemporaries but would soon become attractive to the Romantics - artists and naturalists.