Città Pensile

Piranesi’s Elusive Concept of the Pensile City

Abstract

This article discusses the oeuvre of the Italian architect and engraver, G.B. Piranesi (1720-1778), and in particular the Campo Marzio. Conceptualizing its architectural and urban idea, it addresses architects, urban designers, architecture historians and theorists. They will (re)discover the singular ichnographia Campi Martii, a large map engraved by Piranesi of ancient imperial Rome, in a trans-historical perspective and in the light of recent theory. The article consists of a prelude and ten paragraphs, grouped in three parts. The illustrations, indispensable to grasp Piranesi’s ‘elusive’ vision, and a source of wonder in themselves, are selected in synchrony with the argument of the pensile city. Relevant scholarship is briefly reviewed and further relayed to the footnotes. The prelude introduces the Campo Marzio, which, above all other possible considerations, must be seen as a work of art. Then, two paragraphs introduce the main themes of the article: the concept of the pensile city and the interest of the problem it poses, then and now, which is the ‘scaping’ of landscape in the city. The second part consists of three paragraphs developing various related themes, concerning the relations of words and objects, of architecture and infrastructure, and of figure and ground. The third part delves conceptual aspects of the pensile city from their inscription in the ichnographia, in three paragraphs that analyse the flightline and the fugue, the correlation of plan and perspective, specifically in the Carceri and the Vedute di Roma, and the rare kind of graphic realism. The last two paragraphs propose a conclusion. The first resumes Piranesi’s polemical position and poetical practice. The second is a note on history and theory, stating the pensile city is topical today, precisely as utopia.

Read the full article online at: https://drawingon.org/Issue-04-PL-Citta-Pensile