“Piranesi as Designer,” a lovely new show at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, introduces us to the full sweep of this Venetian artist’s career, from the early etchings of antiquities to his eccentric furniture designs.
What emerges from the show is a portrait of a radical intellectual figure as well as a masterly artist who refused to bow to the conventions of his time. His eclectic imagination and distrust of authority speak directly to contemporary architectural concerns. They remind us that an architecture of the imagination can resonate through the centuries with as much force as a monument chiseled in stone. Nicolai Ouroussoff. Lire la suite http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/arts/design/28pira.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"One of the show’s great discoveries is a stunning marble table balanced on five gilded legs decorated with winged lions’ heads. Why more than four? The fifth leg is an excuse to pile on more ornament," says Nicolai Ouroussoff. (Photo: The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

Thomas Hope's design for this settee in London was inspired by Piranesi's work. (Photo: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney)

An early Piranesi drawing features a pastiche of ancient temples and a piazza with obelisks. (Photo: Pierpont Morgan Library)

A chimneypiece designed for John Hope. (Photo: Matt Flynn)

Staircases and bridges dwarfing tiny figures in "The Drawbridge." "Piranesi shows us that fantasy can have a more lasting impact than a concrete monument to the ego," says Nicolai Ouroussoff. (Photo: Arthur Ross Foundation)

“Piranesi as Designer” continues through Jan. 20 at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, 2 East 91st Street, Manhattan; www.cooperhewitt.org.