He had a strong influence on subsequent generations of Romantic artists and later on the Surrealists. His prints were reproduced in great numbers, even after his death. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, or Giambattista Piranesi) 17201778) Italian archaeologist, architect and graphic artist, master of architectural landscapes. Piranesi's extensive artistic output was dispersed widely through prints sold to Grand Tourists, who often visited his flourishing workshop. An etcher, engraver, architect, archeologist and theorist, Giovanni Battista. Neo-classical designers and early Romantic writers were quick to recognize his eclectic vision. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720 - 1778). Piranesi's highly original designs and ideas influenced many artists and literary figures during and beyond his lifetime. During an expedition, ill health forced him to return to Rome, where he died at the age of fifty-eight.
During his fifties, Piranesi's interest in archaeology took him to southern Italy, where he produced drawings and etchings of Greek architecture.
He began etching inventive views of ancient ruins and modern Roman structures, images that brought him great popularity, and later began a series of etchings of fantastic prison interiors. When Piranesi was twenty, he moved to Rome and began a careful study of the city's ancient monuments. Piranesi's prints and drawings reveal his talent for combining dramatic perspectives and architectural fantasies. During his early years, he studied stage design and intricate systems of perspective composition. His uncle, a designer and hydraulics engineer, taught him the art of drawing. An Italian etcher, archaeologist, designer, theorist, and architect, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (b.