Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, Mogliano Veneto 1720–1778 Rome), Prisoners on a Projecting Platform, from Carceri d'invenzione (Imaginary Prisons), ca. 1749–50. Giovanni Bouchard (French, ca. 1716–1795), publisher. Etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing; first state of four (Robison); Sheet: 19 1/2 x 25 3/16 in. (49.5 x 64 cm) Plate: 16 1/8 x 21 1/4 in. (41 x 54 cm). Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1937. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 37.45.3(33) © 2000–2016 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Piranesi's groundbreaking etchings of imaginary prison scenes combine the artist's early love of northern Italian stage design and fantastical imaginary architecture with his study of Roman monuments and masonry. In this first version of the plate, printed and available for sale in 1749, there is a vivid contrast between the airy massing of the architecture and the deeply bitten, contorted figures of the prisoners on the platform. The artist later reworked the plates of the series, often making them darker and more detailed. 

This work is exhibited in the "Unfinished: Thoughts Left Invisible" exhibition, on view through September 4th, 2016. #MetBreuer