![piranesi prison etchings piranesi prison etchings](https://art.famsf.org/sites/default/files/styles/artwork_view/public/artwork/piranesi/5131162228180051.jpg)
It had a double axis, grand fountain and two streams running its length from the palace to the southern entrance with a statue of Amphitrite, the wife of Poseidon the sea god, as the focal point of a series of cascades. The site was originally relatively flat but Nolli created a sunken garden to display the cardinal’s treasures. The garden extends further to the right of the print and ended with a large pavilion called the Caffeaus which had a grand semi-circular portico. This is now in the Louvre, part of the loot taken to Paris by the French in 1797, and unlike smaller works of art was considered too expensive and complicated to return after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. The view ends with the large Fontana dei Facchini, with its four Atlas figures. Piranesi doesn’t show the whole garden, and there is probably more missing than included.
![piranesi prison etchings piranesi prison etchings](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54c7b69fe4b05b81c91273e3/1422918876992-98DB7PLZQ78RPY0OYTWR/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kAHaCbzm8r-sz0VJ5w_ANwZ7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z4YTzHvnKhyp6Da-NYroOW3ZGjoBKy3azqku80C789l0p4XabXLlNWpcJMv7FrN_NKIN7YNnGXHNxF7KvqxV8vKufdKNYiK1PBiumHOVQDIxw/1MB_Piranesi_+Prison_24.jpg)
The garden is seen from an oblique angle, which distorts the view in much the same way as a wide angle lens might do. Piranesi left Rome after it was published, returning to Venice, before travelling to see the excavations which had begun in 1738 at Herculaneum. The collection was not a great commercial success although it was reissued in a revised form a few years later and some of the prints were recycled and appeared in other volumes. The images bear similarities to contemporary theatre set designs, notably in the use of exaggerated perspective, which he was to use to great effect in his depiction of gardens. Prima parte di Architettura e Prospettive his first collection of a dozen or so prints of fanciful reconstructions of imaginary classical buildings was published in 1743. But Piranesi was clearly anxious to test his own talents. He began by studying for a short period under Giuseppe Vasi, an architect turned engraver who was already publishing vedute, and was to go on and produce several volumes of them in book form.
![piranesi prison etchings piranesi prison etchings](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5c/56/7a/5c567a1eb9ad276434bdb1329b827a1c.jpg)
On his arrival in Rome Piranesi lived near the French Academy in Rome which had been established by Louis XIV as a “finishing school” for aspiring French artists. Title page of the 1st edition of Prima parte di Architettura e Prospettive, 1743