Giovanni Battista Piranesi

As I am constantly iterating my proposal for my final project, I am learning more and more about the history of Circus Maximus. I am really impressed about how Romans managed to build such a structure with so much history about it. I have to say the architecture is the most important thing in this kind of buildings.

In my search for references to support my research, I came across an article writing about this artist named Giovanni Battista Piranesi well-known particularly for his drawings or etchings. He was a master of capturing the 18th century of Rome. In the article they also conduct an analysis and describes how he uses specific techniques and controls the image to impact the viewer. By having an amazing knowledge about shape and perspective he uses it to craft his art work. (Rapp, 2008)

Here are some examples of his etchings:

The detail of his work put him apart as he was one of the greatest etching artist at that time. Unfortunately not a lot of his drawings survived as he might have destroyed some to protect his secrets and also some of them still remained unfinished. Because of his usage of perspective, being deceptive as some artists say nowadays, Piranesi was often blamed for an unreal representation of Rome. This was mainly because he exaggerated the measurements.

This was such a great article, describing not only the history of the artist, but also some techniques he might have used. Just amazing!

References

Rapp, J. (2008). A geometrical analysis of multiple viewpoint perspective in the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi: an application of geometric restitution of perspective. The Journal of Architecture, [online] 13(6), pp.701-736. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com.login.library.ucs.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1080/13602360802573868?scroll=top&needAccess=true [Accessed 1 Nov. 2016].

Theantiquarium.com. (2016). The Antiquarium - Antique Print & Map Gallery - Architecture. [online] Available at: https://www.theantiquarium.com/architecture [Accessed 1 Nov. 2016].

The beginning

Hello everyone, this is my final year project called "Circus Maximus". My name is Viorel and I am in my third and last year at University of Suffolk. I am studying Computer Games Design with a focus on 3D Environment Art and Design. Without further to do here is my blog!

I am inviting you to assist me in this wonderful journey and explore the secrets and the true value of one of the greatest structures in the Roman Empire called  The "Circus Maximus". I will begin by sharing some of my first feelings when I came across to this subject.

By only hearing the name I started thinking about how huge and massive this building could be. But the true astonishment came when I actually gathered some images of the place. It doesn't even need a sentence to describe it, it is just amazing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGLHZN0GkK0

I really became speechless when I saw it in all of its glory and greatness.

The Goal? Well, bring it back to life in 3D might not sound that difficult for some of you, but only a few know what is actually happening behind the curtain. It will be a long and difficult path to achieve it but I am willing to put all my time and effort to make this happen.

You may be wondering why this ? why in 3D ? Because I want to challenge myself and I finally got something that's worth it.

"Design is a solution to a problem. Art is a question to a problem." (Maeda, 2009)

References

Maeda, J. (2009). John Maeda on Twitter. [online] Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/johnmaeda/status/2057122807 [Accessed 26 Oct. 2016].

thecreato.rs, (2013). Circus Maximus Short Animation. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGLHZN0GkK0 [Accessed 26 Oct. 2016].