To the illustrious engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi

To the illustrious engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Your body was and is of metal,

formed by 2,202 copper plates.

You knew the value of sacrifice… of hard work:

the horseman that rides them both is your iron-willed character.

The mediocre wanted to sink and bury a rising sun that lit up thousands of stars.

You were a great vedutista, but on plates of the challenging metal,

not of the delicate, pleasurable and white canvas.

A wonderful draughtsman and artist, you reveled in archeology, wherein you found your truth.

Your inspired searches in ancient Rome, your ruins and unique skies, your imaginary prisons.

You, responsible for my taking up the gravers, set fire to the timid flame that dawned.

Master of masters, unrelenting artistic perception.

Day and night, you faced the nitric acid, and as if lured out of hiding,

your plates resurfaced after overcoming an alchemist’s work,

Transmuting nothingness, emptiness,

into Beauty, Art, the All.

Maria Jose Pujol