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 cosmopolitanism
and transatlantic
circles in music
and literature
rya n r . w e b e r
Palgrave Studies in Music and Literature

Series Editors
Paul Lumsden
City Centre Campus
MacEwan University
Edmonton, AB, Canada

Marco Katz Montiel

Edmonton, AB, Canada
This leading-edge series joins two disciplines in an exploration of how
music and literature confront each other as dissonant antagonists while
also functioning as consonant companions. By establishing a critical con-
nection between literature and music, this series highlights the interaction
between what we read and hear. Investigating the influence music has on
narrative through history, theory, culture, or global perspectives provides
a concrete framework for a seemingly abstract arena. Titles in the series,
both monographs and edited volumes, explore musical encounters in nov-
els and poetry, considerations of the ways in which narratives appropriate
musical structures, examinations of musical form and function, and studies
of interactions with sound.

Editorial Advisory Board

Frances R. Aparicio, Northwestern University, US
Timothy Brennan, University of Minnesota, US
Barbara Brinson Curiel, Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies,
Humboldt State University, US
Gary Burns, Northern Illinois University, US
Peter Dayan, Word and Music Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Shuhei Hosokawa, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Japan
Javier F. León, Latin American Music Center of the Jacobs School of Music,
Indiana University, US
Marilyn G. Miller, Tulane University, US
Robin Moore, University of Texas at Austin, US
Nduka Otiono, Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Canada
Gerry Smyth, Liverpool John Moores University, England
Jesús Tejada, Universitat de València, Spain
Alejandro Ulloa Sanmiguel, Universidad del Valle, Colombia

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15596
 Ryan R. Weber

Cosmopolitanism
and Transatlantic
Circles in Music
and Literature
Ryan R. Weber
Misericordia University
Dallas, PA, USA

Palgrave Studies in Music and Literature

ISBN 978-3-030-01859-7    ISBN 978-3-030-01860-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01860-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018959072

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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To Mary, Robert, and Mary
 Acknowledgments

This book is the outcome of more than a decade of thinking (and rethink-
ing) about the possibilities and challenges afforded by cosmopolitanism in
music and literature. Over this extended period of time, there have been
numerous people who have contributed to its development. I am thankful
for the many colleagues at conferences throughout the United States and
Europe who provided useful feedback on ideas that found their way into
this book. There have also been a number of significant scholarly contri-
butions that shaped my thinking on Grieg, MacDowell, Grainger, and
their literary circles. Daniel Grimley’s work on Grieg and Scandinavian
music has been a perennial source of inspiration. David Pear and Malcolm
Gillies have continually stimulated my thinking on Grainger. To them and
to the scholars I cite throughout this volume, which are too numerous to
list here, thank you for your remarkable insights.
At the University of Connecticut, where much of the vision for this
volume began, I am indebted to Richard Bass, Alain Frogley, Peter
Kaminsky, Anna Kijas, and Ronald Squibbs. At Misericordia University, I
am grateful for a Faculty Research Grant, which enabled me to complete
research during the early phases of this project. I am also appreciative of the
generous administrative support I received throughout the production of
this manuscript, especially the assistance of Dr. Heidi L. K. Manning, Dean
of the College of Arts and Sciences, who provided for a writing retreat and
a much-needed course release—all of which has proven to be invaluable.
Additionally, I thank my colleagues across multiple disciplines with whom
I am honored to share my days. One could not ask for a better group of
scholars with whom to continue this journey of learning and discovery.

vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Parts of Chap. 6 were originally published in Nineteenth-Century Music

Review (NCMR) in an article entitled “In Search of Hybridity: Grainger,
MacDowell and their Cosmopolitan Imagination.” I am grateful to
Bennett Zon, editor, and to the editorial board at NCMR for granting me
the opportunity to serve as guest editor of this special volume. Thank you
also to the many publishers that generously permitted me to reprint mate-
rial in this book, including Cambridge University Press, G. Henle Verlag,
C.F. Peters Corporation, and Schott Publishers. I also extend my apprecia-
tion to the anonymous reviewers of different versions of this manuscript
who offered expert guidance and critical suggestions without which this
volume would be far less successful. Any errors that remain are my own.
My sincere gratitude goes to the editorial staff at Palgrave Macmillan
for their patience and guidance, especially Allie Troyanos and Rachel
Jacobe as well as series editors Paul Lumsden and Marco Katz Montiel. I
am thrilled to offer this study as part of such an exciting series. It has been
a joy working with this team throughout every step of the process.
Closer to home, I extend my heartfelt appreciation to an unparalleled
support network. To my parents, who have sustained and supported me in
ways that defy categorization: thank you for your ceaseless compassion
that has enabled me to be confident when I was unsure, calm when I was
concerned, and strong when I was weak. To Jamie: thank you for continu-
ally offering me a love I could never earn. Finally, to Mary, Robert, and
Mary to whom this book is affectionately dedicated: thank you for provid-
ing me a level of inspiration that transcends the experiences time would
otherwise erase. Although they did not live to witness the completion of
this study, their spirit resides within every page. I am humbled to share
with them a love made stronger in passing—a journey not yet completed.
 Contents

1 Introduction: Traversing Time, Place, and Space   1

1.1 Cosmopolitan Creeds and Transatlantic Gestures:
Intersections in Music and Literature  1
1.2 Circles of Influences, Triangles of Affinities: Widening the
Scope of Investigation 12
1.3 Cosmopolitan Dimensions: Conceptualizing Time and Space 14
1.4 Taking Back the Discourse: The Utility of Conflict in
Cosmopolitan Networks 19
1.5 False Oppositions, “Real” Hybrids: Distance, Detachment,
and the Problem of Definitions 23
1.6 Outline of Chapters 26
References 32

2 Local Debates, International Partnerships: Garborg,

Benzon, and Grieg’s Idea of Cosmopolitanism  35
2.1 National Problems, Cosmopolitan Solutions: Timeless
Principles or Emergent Moments? 35
2.2 Boundaries in Flux: The Polemics of a Country Divided 40
2.3 The Language Debate and the Dialectic of Identity 43
2.4 Courting the Other: Grieg’s Both/And Affiliations 48
2.5 Vinje and the Problem of Historicism 53
2.6 From Literary Models to Musical Language: Grieg, Garborg,
and the Path Toward Cosmopolitan Synthesis 58
References 69

ix
x Contents

3 From Songs to Psalms: Grieg’s Cosmopolitan Aesthetic  73

3.1 Universalism Found, Universalism Contested: Grieg,
Benzon, and the Problem of Locality 73
3.2 Death and Despair as Universalizing Forces: “Beside
Mother’s Grave” (Ved Moders Grav), Op. 69, No. 3  79
3.3 Cosmopolitan Conditions, Chromatic Techniques: “Eros,”
Op. 70, No. 1  87
3.4 A System of Opposites or a Dialogue of Correspondences? 92
3.5 Cosmopolitan Layers in Grieg’s Last Published Works: Four
Psalms, Op. 74  96
3.6 Cosmopolitanizing the Nation: A Survey of Grieg’s Additive
Layers 99
References110

4 Cosmopolitan Practices: Grieg, Grainger, and the Search

for a Musical Analogue 113
4.1 Late Songs, Early Meetings: Grieg, Grainger, and
Cosmopolitan Ambitions117
4.2 Literary Influences, Musical Reflections119
4.3 In Search of Universal Vistas: Whitman and Grainger’s
Early Nordic Gaze122
4.4 Whitman Meets Grieg: Grainger’s “Democratic Textures”
in His Marching Song of Democracy127
4.5 “Cumulative Cosmopolitanism” and the Path to Modernism132
4.6 Divided Legacies: Alternate Paths Toward Cultural
Salience142
References149

5 Cosmopolitan Ideas: Grieg, MacDowell, and a Tale of

Weary Men 151
5.1 Crumbling Idols and Constructing Models: MacDowell’s
Fight Against Parochialism153
5.2 Daniel Gregory Mason and the Rhetoric of Cosmopolitanism
in America158
5.3 Cosmopolitan Remainders and the Cultivation of
Detachment: Literary Models as Paradigms for Musical
Mediations163
 Contents  xi

5.4 Embracing the Local, Unlocking the Universal: MacDowell,

Garland, and “Veritism” in America168
5.5 The Nordic as Cosmopolitan Surrogate173
5.6 Toward a New Kunstvereinigung: Navigating the
Transatlantic Space of Cosmopolitanism178
References186

6 In Search of Hybridity: MacDowell, Grainger, and the End

of Anachronisms 189
6.1 Locating Cosmopolitanism: A Diachronic Comparison of
Responses to Cultural Hegemony193
6.2 Living in America, Looking to Norway: A Synchronic
Comparison of Musical Approaches198
6.3 Ancient Literature, Modern Music: Sagas, Tales, and the
Bifocality of Cosmopolitan Vistas204
6.4 Harnessing a “Restless Spirit of Change”: The Pursuit of
Hybridity as the Goal of Progress211
6.5 Toward a Development of a Cosmopolitan Aesthetic in
America: MacDowell’s “Eight Songs,” Op. 47215
6.6 Cosmopolitanism and the End of Anachronisms219
References231

7 The Grainger Paradox: Manufacturing Hybridity,

Circulating Exclusivity 235
7.1 Marking and Unmarking: The Problem of Universalism in
Music236
7.2 “Of Rhetoric and Representation”: The Literature of
Eugenics, Eugenics in Literature243
7.3 Dangerous Hybrids and a Biological View of Progress247
7.4 Between I and We: A New Matrix of the Individual and
Society255
7.5 Race as Binding Agent: From Nordic Gaze to Nordic
Fantasy to Nordic Supremacy260
7.6 Cosmopolitanism at Its Limits: Racial Identity and the
Transitive Property of Belonging271
References282
xii Contents

8 Conclusion 287
8.1 The Nordic Cause and the Limits of Cosmopolitanism:
Preserving the Minority, Improving the Majority287
8.2 Whose Cosmopolitanism Is It?: Double Consciousness and
Compound Imperatives289
8.3 Moving Forward or Falling Back?: Continuing Resurgence
from the Margins297
References301

Index 303
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Representative circles of influence, triangles of affiliation 13

Fig. 1.2 Triangles of affiliation 14
Fig. 3.1 “Beside Mother’s Grave,” measures 5–6 (melody and
harmonic reduction). Copyright © 1998 by Hinrichsen
Edition. Used with permission from C.F. Peters Corporation.
All rights Reserved 79
Fig. 3.2 Taaren (“Tears”), EG. 128, measures 1–4. Copyright © 1998
by Hinrichsen Edition. Used with permission from C.F. Peters
Corporation. All rights Reserved 80
Fig. 3.3 “Beside Mother’s Grave,” Op. 69, No. 3, harmonic reduction 81
Fig. 3.4 Op. 70, No. 1 (“Eros”), form chart 87
Fig. 3.5 Op. 70, No. 1 (“Eros”), measures 20–23. Copyright © 1998
by Hinrichsen Edition. Used with permission from C.F. Peters
Corporation. All rights Reserved 88
Fig. 3.6 Op. 70, No. 2, measures 20–30. Copyright © 1998 by
Hinrichsen Edition. Used with permission from C.F. Peters
Corporation. All rights Reserved 89
Fig. 3.7 Tetrachordal network, Op. 70, No. 2, measures 20–30 90
Fig. 3.8 “Eros,” measures 28–40 (harmonic reduction) 91
Fig. 3.9 “Eros,” measures 44–49. Copyright © 1998 by Hinrichsen
Edition. Used with permission from C.F. Peters Corporation.
All rights Reserved 92
Fig. 3.10 “How fair is Thy face,” mm. 7–12. Copyright © 1953 by
C.F. Peters Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used with
permission100

xiii
xiv List of Figures

Fig. 3.11 “How fair is Thy face,” measures 54–57. Copyright © 1953
by C.F. Peters Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used with
permission102
Fig. 4.1 Grieg, “Gentlemen-Rankers,” EG 156, measures 12–15.
New York: C.F. Peters Corporation. Used with permission 116
Fig. 4.2 Ludwig Mathias Lindeman, “Den nordlanske bondestand,”
from Ældre og Nyere Norske Fjeldmelodier. Oslo, 1848 137
Fig. 4.3 Grieg, Ballade, measures 1–16. Munich: G. Henle Verlag.
Used with permission 138
Fig. 4.4 Grainger, “My Robin is to the Greenwood gone” piano
version from Settings of Song & Tunes from William Chappell’s
“Old English Popular Music.” London: Schott. Used with
permission140
Fig. 6.1 “Folksong,” measures 1–9, from “Eight Songs,” Op. 47.
Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1893 216
Fig. 6.2 “The Sea,” measures 1–17, from “Eight Songs,” Op. 47.
Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1893 217
 List of Tables

Table 3.1 Four Psalms, overview 99

Table 3.2 “How Fair is Thy Face,” form chart 103
Table 6.1 “Eight Songs,” Op. 47 titles and texts 215

xv
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Traversing Time, Place,

and Space

1.1   Cosmopolitan Creeds and Transatlantic

Gestures: Intersections in Music and Literature
In his self-proclaimed “cosmopolitan credo,” sent to Wilhelm Hansen on
14 September 1889, Grieg responded to his German critics and rejected
the singular categorization of “national artist”:

If the author had been familiar with my work in its entirety, it would hardly
have escaped him that in my more recent compositions I have striven
increasingly toward a broader and more universal view of my own individu-
ality, a view influenced by the great currents of our time—that is, by the
cosmopolitan movement. But this I willingly admit: Never could I bring
myself to violently tear up the roots that tie me to my native land.1

His response was symptomatic of a disposition that grew stronger in the

last decade of the nineteenth century—an agenda that aimed to cast off
this moniker in favor of a broader identity. It also testifies to the complica-
tions of mediating local and international identities in Norway, especially
given that these categories were subject to the transformative currents of
time. Thus, the conviction that national identities were not stable, fixed
entities can be viewed as an outgrowth of his resolute faith in a cosmopoli-
tan worldview—one that he developed as a philosophical position and an
aesthetic solution to these challenges. Grieg’s credo thereby inverts the

© The Author(s) 2018 1

R. R. Weber, Cosmopolitanism and Transatlantic Circles in Music
and Literature, Palgrave Studies in Music and Literature,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01860-3_1
2 R. R. WEBER

nineteenth-century narrative that earned him much of his professional

success when he created a new network of affiliations amidst growing calls
of nationalism in Norway sparked, in part, by the campaign for indepen-
dence from their Scandinavian neighbors. And although his “cosmopoli-
tan credo” may only have entailed two paragraphs, it portends a wide web
of polemics that extended far beyond this discourse. How can one simul-
taneously be in a place and beyond it? How can one mark individual iden-
tity in art while also cultivating a universal appeal? Moreover, how does
the passing of time affect “solutions” to both of these challenges?
Indeed, these problems in music were so daunting that the Norwegian
composer found few models within Scandinavia that could mediate these
tensions. A notable exception was the work of contemporary Danish com-
poser Christian Horneman (1840–1906), about whom he penned an
article in 1881. In it, Horneman garners praise from his colleague for his
ability to avoid the homogenizing and radical tendencies of nationalism
that were circulating throughout Scandinavia, which he summarizes:

Throughout Horneman’s ideas one can find universal, genuinely philan-

thropic basic concepts. One will look in vain, on the other hand, for any
trace of national-folkish ecstasy. It is worth noting that during the time
when it was politically popular to be “super-super-Danish,” he continued to
be unmoved by this phenomenon, which inexplicably spread in all directions
at that time. How often, verbally as well as in music, he has fought with the
warmth of conviction for the universal against the parochial, for the cosmo-
politan against nation one-sidedness. In other words: How often he has
shown the attentive observer that he is one of those who—without knowing
it himself, I think—belongs to the future!2

Herein Grieg frames cosmopolitanism as a point of view that stands against

national extremism and one that possesses an enduring quality capable of
standing the test of time. This assessment is rendered more significant
when taking into consideration the fact that, during the 1880s, Grieg’s
cosmopolitan vision had yet to achieve widespread appreciation or legiti-
mate status.
Yet there were few other musicians within Norway who demonstrated
a comparable process for connecting the individual to the universal.
Therefore, Grieg frequently turned to his literary colleagues in order to
validate and shape his ideals. For instance, two decades after writing his
credo, he celebrated the career of the Norwegian author Bjørnstjerne
Bjørnson (1832–1910) by declaring,
 INTRODUCTION: TRAVERSING TIME, PLACE, AND SPACE 3

Bjørnson has taught me and all the other Norwegian composers that art is
something more than a merely regional phenomenon. He has taught us that
we must go to the mountains, and look out over the whole beautiful
Norway, and take it into our souls. … Bjørnson has become the great cos-
mopolitan—and at the same time the great national—poet. We strive to
follow in his footsteps.3

Herein Grieg attributes Bjørnson’s greatness to his ability to establish

cosmopolitan vistas while simultaneously serving as a national spokes-
person. He also acknowledges the importance of the literary domain in
shaping music of the epoch. At the same time, it is significant that Grieg
recognizes his colleague in this manner, for Bjørnson’s career was not
unproblematic when it came to promoting national autonomy. Though
he placed himself in the lineage of national poets such as Ludvig Holberg
and Henrik Wergeland, Bjørnson received a grant that enabled him to
spend the years 1860–1863 in Italy, where he studied the history of
Mediterranean art. He would later return to Southern Europe in
1873–1875 and complete his modern dramas Redaktøren (“The Editor”)
and En Fallit (“A Bankruptcy”).4 The fact that his creative energies were
sustained, even enhanced, by these (and other) extended journeys out-
side of Norway had frequently gone unnoticed by some critics who
would rather have placed Bjørnson firmly in a national-romantic narra-
tive. But as Grieg rightly notes, Bjørnson’s multilayered aesthetic was
driven by distance—a point the poet confirmed in his Poems and Songs
when he wrote, “In this I am of the genus snail, my house I ev’rywhere
with me trail.”5
Their extended period of correspondence also exposes a trajectory in
Grieg’s own thinking—one that increasingly relied on a cosmopolitan
worldview for salience. Early in their working relationship, Grieg discussed
his passion for celebrating their national culture in a letter on 21 February
1875: “To depict Norwegian nature, Norwegian life, Norwegian history
and Norwegian folk poetry in music stands for me as the area in which I
think I can achieve something. … For now, Romanticism in all its fullness
still beckons me.”6 But love of his homeland would never be the only
guiding force in his career. The central role of cosmopolitanism thereby
comes into better focus on numerous occasions, such as his willingness to
criticize fanatical views in his letter to Bjørnson on 10 July 1897:
4 R. R. WEBER

Ah, these Swedes! How they sang “Yes, we love this land” [the Norwegian
national anthem] at the station upon our departure from Stockholm! God
help me, I began to believe it was true! It is as you say: we have nothing to
fear from the people—the Swedish people, I mean. For our worst enemies are
among ourselves.7

Three years later, after giving a concert of his own compositions in

Denmark, Grieg wrote again to his friend and confirmed that his recent
works were the result of an arch in his career that he described as “the first,
naive [period], reflecting many antecedents; the second national; and the
third with wider horizons.”8 Furthermore, Grieg’s grievances over the
conditions in Norway only intensified toward the end of his life. In his
letter of 20 December 1904, he complained: “Up here the air is stifling—
both the political and economic air. We must indeed be a childish people,
not yet mature enough to govern ourselves. We lack a feeling for modera-
tion in all its forms—yes, even for social morality.”9 This indictment rep-
resented a theme he frequently repeated, including in a letter of the same
year to his friend Frants Beyer wherein he pushed back against conserva-
tive critics stating, “People simply don’t bother to follow an artist’s devel-
opment. … To put it bluntly, we are still not mature enough to have music
around us—or, let me say, art in general.”10
Grieg was not alone in his criticisms. On the other side of the Atlantic,
the American composer Edward MacDowell (1860–1908) made the
acquaintance of Hamlin Garland (1860–1940)—an essayist and poet who
was busy recording his experiences of the Midwest. According to Garland’s
published recollection of his discussions with MacDowell, the composer
was reportedly despondent over the widespread reliance on German train-
ing and wished music “to be a sister art to literature and not a poor rela-
tion called in to amuse the other sisters while they feasted.”11 Garland
subsequently recounted a conversation he had with MacDowell wherein
the composer offered complaints over the cultural status in America that
were similar to contemporary objections by Grieg:

[Garland:] “Just now Italy is flooding us with immigrants. Most of them

come in the spring and go back in the autumn. Suppose they stay. Suppose
they become as numerous as the Germans, and suppose, as some people
argue, they are to bring their musical geniuses with them, how does that
help? We will have Italian masters instead of German masters, that’s all.
Can’t we grow up? Must we forever remain doppel gangers?—fake doubles
 INTRODUCTION: TRAVERSING TIME, PLACE, AND SPACE 5

of Old World artists? These are the questions which lie at the bottom of my
little book. I meant no disrespect of the masters, but I opposed and still
oppose the imitation. I believe in a national art. No outsider can express our
essential character, our national spirit.”
“That’s just the point,” interrupted MacDowell. “Have we a national
spirit? Aren’t we still in the cultural stage? I’m afraid we are not yet grown
up. Borrowing is to be our business for a long time, I suspect. Some day,
when you and I are old, there’ll be an American School of Music, as well as
of fiction. We’ll have composers as cultured, as American in their work as
Howells is in his.”12

This conversation exposes similar anxieties that were circulating through

America at the same time as Norway. It also yielded a similar series of ques-
tions: How could “peripheral” cultures formulate their own identity with-
out copying the achievements of their dominant neighbors? How could
artists provide this leadership effectively to a public that was not condi-
tioned to receive their ideas? In short, could musicians achieve the same
type of independence that writers had already achieved?
Also similar to Grieg was the fact that, while national distinctiveness
was a key objective for MacDowell, it was not the ultimate goal of his
aesthetic ambitions. Lawrence Gilman was perhaps the first commentator
to emphasize the more universal nature of MacDowell’s aspirations. In his
early biography of the composer, Gilman quotes a passage from MacDowell
in which the composer candidly places the abstract nature of music above
the “limiting” powers of language:

The battle over what music can express and what it cannot express has been
carried on wrong lines. We are always referred back to language as actually
expressing an idea, when, as a matter of fact, language expresses nothing but
that which its vital parallel means of expression, gesture and facial expres-
sion, permit it to express. Words mean nothing whatsoever in themselves;
the same words in different languages mean wholly different things; for
written words are mere symbols, and no more express things or ideas than
any marks on paper would. Yet language is forever striving to emulate music
by actually expressing something, besides merely symbolizing it.13

And yet, paradoxically, MacDowell’s search for the transcendental powers

of music—powers that could overcome the restrictions of language—were
very much inspired by the written word throughout his career. Indeed, his
appetite for reading—like Grieg’s—was extensive. As Gilman also explains,
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recognized the profound integrity of his art, there is still something
left over, beyond analysis, and that the rarest thing of all.
How it is we cannot say, but there has passed into these little works
an intangible presence, of which we cannot choose but be
conscious, though it was not consciously expressed,—the spirit of
one of the fullest, deepest natures that ever breathed. Whatever
Rembrandt does, however slight, something of that spirit escapes
him, some tinge of his experience,—of those thoughts, “too deep for
tears,” which things meaner than the meanest flowers could stir in
him.
 GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI
(1720-1778)
Part I
By BENJAMIN BURGES MOORE

T
HE life of Piranesi was eminently that of a man of genius,
characterized by all the peculiarities ascribable to genius,
perhaps as failures of human nature, but also distinguished by
that which imparts to its possessor an imperishable renown. Those
peculiarities are worthy of notice, as they bear so much on the
character of his work; but his works, wonderful as they are in point of
execution, are less to be admired for this than for the interest of the
subjects he chose, and that which he imparted to them. In an age of
frivolities, he boldly and single-handed dared to strike out for himself
a new road to fame; and in dedicating his talents to the recording
and illustrating from ancient writers the mouldering records of former
times, he met with a success as great as it was deserved,
combining, as he did, all that was beautiful in art with all that was
interesting in the remains of antiquity.”
These words were prefixed to an account of Piranesi’s career
published in London during the year 1831 in “The Library of the Fine
Arts,” and based upon a sketch of his life written by his son,
Francesco, but never published, although the manuscript at that
period had passed into the hands of the publishers, Priestly and
Weale, only to be subsequently lost or destroyed.
 Portrait of Giovanni Battista Piranesi
From the engraving by F. Polanzani, dated 1750
It is impossible to study this little known portrait without being
convinced of its accurate likeness. It certainly conveys an
impression of the man’s dæmonic force, which is not given by
the more frequently reproduced statue executed by Angelini.
Size of the original etching, 15¼ × 11¼ inches
 Piranesi. Arch of Septimius Severus
A rendering almost as faithful as an architect’s drawing, which
Piranesi’s unfailing genius has transformed into an enchanting
work of art. This arch stands in the Roman Forum. It was
dedicated 203 a.d. in commemoration of victories over the
Parthians.
Size of the original etching, 18⅜ × 27¾ inches

Eighty years, therefore, have passed since this evaluation of the

great Italian etcher was written, yet to-day he is no more appreciated
at his full worth than he was then. At all times it has been not
uncommon for an artist to attain a kind of wide and enduring renown,
although estimated at his true value and for his real excellences by
only a few; but of such a fate it would be difficult to select a more
striking or illustrious example than Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Living
and dying in the Eternal City, Rome, to whose august monuments
his fame is inseparably linked, he was the author of the prodigious
number of over thirteen hundred large plates, combining the arts of
etching and engraving, which, aside from their intrinsic merit as
works of art, are of incalculable value on account of the inexhaustible
supply of classic motives which they offer to all designers, and to
which they, more than any other influence, have given currency.
These prints, in early and beautiful proofs, are still to be bought at
relatively low figures, while each year sees the sale, by thousands,
of impressions from the steeled plates still existing at Rome in the
Royal Calcography;—impressions which, although in themselves still
sufficiently remarkable to be worth possessing, are yet so debased
as to constitute a libel upon the real powers of Piranesi.
The wide diffusion of these ignoble prints, and the fact that Piranesi’s
output was so great as to place his work within the reach of the
slenderest purse, are largely responsible for the failure of the general
public to apprehend his real greatness; for rarity calls attention to
merit, to which in fact it often gives a value entirely fictitious, while
there is always difficulty in realizing that things seen frequently and
in quantities may have qualities far outweighing those of work which
has aroused interest by its scarcity. This is why the fame of Piranesi
is widely spread, although his best and most characteristic work is
almost unknown, and his real genius generally unrecognized.
Born in Venice, October 4th, 1720, and named after Saint John the
Baptist, Piranesi was the son of a mason, blind in one eye, and of
Laura Lucchesi. His maternal uncle was an architect and engineer,—
for in those days the same person frequently combined the two
professions,—who had executed various water-works and at least
one church. From his uncle the young Giovanni Battista received his
earliest instruction in things artistic, for which he appears to have
displayed a conspicuously precocious aptitude. Before he was
seventeen he had attracted sufficient attention to assure him
success in his father’s profession, but Rome had already fired his
imagination, and aroused that impetuous determination which
marked his entire career. His yearning after Rome report says to
have been first aroused by a young Roman girl whom he loved, but,
however that may be, he overcame the determined opposition of his
parents, and, in 1738, at the age of eighteen, set out for the papal
city to study architecture, engraving, and in general the fine arts; for
even in those degenerate days there were left some traces of that
multiform talent which distinguished the artists of the Renaissance.
When he reached the goal of his longing, the impression produced
by the immortal city on so fervid an imagination must have been so
deep, so overwhelming, as to annihilate all material considerations,
although they could not have been other than harassing, since the
allowance received from his father was only six Spanish piastres a
month, or some six or seven lire of the Italian money of to-day. By
what expedients he managed to live we cannot even conjecture, but
it may be supposed that he was boarded, apprentice-wise, by the
masters under whom he studied. These teachers were Scalfarotto
and Valeriani, a noted master of perspective and a pupil of one Ricci
of Belluno, who had acquired from the great French painter and lover
of Rome, Claude Lorrain, the habit of painting highly imaginative
pictures composed of elements drawn from the ruins of the Roman
Campagna. This style was transmitted to Piranesi by Valeriani,
without doubt stimulating that passionate appreciation of the
melancholy grandeur of ruined Rome already growing in his mind,
and afterward to fill his entire life and work.
 Piranesi. Arch of Vespasian
In this, as in many of Piranesi’s compositions, the figures are frankly posing,
but their
presence adds such charm to the scene that none could wish them absent.
Size of the original etching, 19 × 27⅜ inches
 Piranesi. Arch of Trajan at Benevento, in the Kingdom of Naples
A fine rendering of that air of glory which the most dilapidated
fragments of a Roman Arch of Triumph never lose. The Arch
of Trajan, one of the finest of ancient arches, was dedicated
a.d. 114. It is of white marble, 48 feet high and 30½ wide,
with a single arch measuring 27 by 16½ feet. The arch is
profusely sculptured with reliefs illustrating Trajan’s life and his
Dacian triumphs.
Size of the original etching, 18⅜ × 27½ inches

At the same time, he acquired a thorough knowledge of etching and

engraving under the Sicilian, Giuseppe Vasi, whose etchings first
aroused the great Goethe’s longing for Italy. At the age of twenty,
thinking, probably not without foundation, that this master was
concealing from him the secret of the correct use of acid in etching,
Piranesi is reported, in his anger, to have made an attempt to murder
Vasi. Such an act would not be out of keeping with the character of
the fiery Venetian, for, before leaving Venice, he had already been
described by a fellow-pupil as “stravagante,” extravagant, or
fantastic, a term not restricted by Italians to a man’s handling of
money, but applied rather to character as a whole, in which
connection it usually denotes the less fortunate side of that complete
and magnificent surrender to an overwhelming passion which
aroused so lively an admiration of the Italian nature in the great
French writer, Stendhal. When we, tame moderns, judge the
“extravagance” of such characters, it is only fair to recollect that, with
all their faults and crimes, these same unbridled Italians were
capable of heroic virtues, unknown to our pale and timid age. Men
like Cellini and Piranesi, who had much in common, are simply
incarnate emotional force, a fact which is, at the same time, the
cause of their follies and the indispensable condition of their genius.
After this quarrel Piranesi returned to Venice, where he attempted to
gain a livelihood by the practice of architecture. There is reason to
believe that at this period he studied under Tiepolo; at any rate there
exist in his published works a few curious, rather rococo plates
entirely different from his usual manner, and very markedly
influenced by the style of Tiepolo’s etching. He also studied painting
with the Polanzani who is responsible for that portrait of him which
forms the frontispiece to the first edition of “Le Antichità Romane,”
and gives so vivid an impression of the dæmonic nature of the man.
Meeting with little success in Venice, he went to Naples, after
returning to Rome, attracted principally by archæological interests.
He stayed at Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Pæstum, where at this
time, undoubtedly, he made the drawings of the temples afterward
etched and published by his son. The drawings for these etchings of
Pæstum, among the best known of the Piranesi plates, are now in
the Soane Museum in London.
 Piranesi. The Basilica, Pæstum
Size of the original etching, 17¾ × 26⅝ inches
 Piranesi. The Temple of Neptune at Pæstum
Size of the original etching, 19½ × 26⅜ inches
Having decided that he had no vocation for painting, which he
definitely abandoned at this time, Piranesi returned to Rome, and
settled there permanently. His father now wished him to return to
Venice, but he was altogether unwilling to do so, and replied,
characteristically, that Rome being the seat of all his affections it
would be impossible for him to live separated from her monuments.
He intimated that in preference to leaving, he would give up his
allowance, a suggestion upon which his father acted promptly by
stopping all remittances, so that, estranged from his relatives,
Piranesi was now entirely dependent upon his own resources for a
livelihood.
His poverty and suffering at this period were undoubtedly great, but
his indomitable nature could be crippled by no material hardships.
He devoted himself entirely to etching and engraving, and, when
twenty-one, published his first composition. At this time he was living
in the Corso opposite the Doria-Pamphili Palace, but even if the
neighborhood was illustrious, it is not pleasant to think what
wretched garret must have hidden the misery of his struggling
genius. His first important and dated work, the “Antichità Romane de’
Tempi della Republica, etc.,” was published in 1748, with a
dedication to the noted antiquary, Monsignore Bottari, chaplain to
Pope Benedict XIV. This work was received with great favor, as the
first successful attempt to engrave architecture with taste, and from
the day of its appearance Piranesi may be said to have been
famous. However, he still experienced the utmost difficulty in finding
the money necessary to subsist and to procure the materials
requisite to his work. Yet, despite his terrible poverty, his labor was
unceasing and tireless to a degree that we can now scarcely
conceive. It must be borne in mind that, in addition to etching and
engraving, he was engaged in the extensive study of archæology,
which led him to undertake many remarkable researches. He
became a noted archæologist of great erudition, as is shown by
numerous controversies with famous antiquarians of the day. Some
idea of the copiousness of his knowledge can be gained from the
fact that his argument covers a hundred folio pages in that
controversy in which he upheld the originality of Roman art against
those who claimed it to be a mere offshoot of Grecian genius. In the
preface to one of his books, he refers to it as the result of “what I
have been able to gather from the course of many years of
indefatigable and most exact observations, excavations, and
researches, things which have never been undertaken in the past.”
This statement is quite true, and when we realize that the
preparation of a single plate, such as the plan of the Campus
Martius, would, in itself, have taken most men many years of work,
we can only feel uncomprehending amazement at the capacity for
work possessed by this man of genius.
 Piranesi. The Temple of Concord
From this plate it is possible to gain an idea of the greater beauty possessed
by ruined Rome when
still shrouded in vegetation. The Arch of Septimius Severus is seen in the
middle distance
Size of the original etching, 18⅛ × 27⅛ inches
 Piranesi. Site of the Ancient Roman Forum
A very interesting historical document which makes it possible to realize an
aspect of the Forum
at present difficult to conceive
Size of the original, 14⅞ × 23¼ inches

The very spirit of imperial Rome would seem to have filled Piranesi,
making him its own, so that the vanished splendor was to him ever
present and added to the strange melancholy of the vine-grown ruins
which alone remained from the “grandeur that was Rome.” In every
age and in every province most Italians have been animated by a
lively sense of their direct descent from classic Rome,—a feeling that
its fame was peculiarly their inheritance in a way true of no other
people, so that this glorious descent was their greatest pride and
claim to leadership. In the darkest days of oppression and servitude,
when Italy sat neglected and disconsolate among her chains, there
were never lacking nobler souls who kept alive a sense of what was
fitting in the descendants of classic Rome, and took therein a
melancholy pride. But no Italian was ever more completely an
ancient Roman than Piranesi, who certainly, in despite of his
Venetian birth, considered himself a “Roman citizen.” This sentiment
played an important part in, perhaps, the most characteristic act of
his whole life, namely, his fantastic marriage, of which he himself left
an account not unworthy of Cellini.
He was drawing in the Forum one Sunday, when his attention was
attracted by a boy and girl, who proved to be the children of the
gardener to Prince Corsini. The girl’s type of features instantly
convinced Piranesi that she was a direct descendant of the ancient
Romans, and so aroused his emotions that on the spot he asked if it
were possible for her to marry him. Her exact reply is not recorded,
although it must have conveyed the fact that she was free, but it can
surprise no one to hear that the girl was thoroughly frightened by
such sudden and overpowering determination. His hasty resolution
was confirmed when Piranesi afterward learned that she had a
dower of one hundred and fifty piastres, or some three hundred lire
of to-day, a fact certain to arouse a keen realization both of his
poverty and of the value of money in those days. Without any delay,
he proceeded to ask the girl’s hand in marriage of her parents, who,
like the girl, appear to have been so terrified and overwhelmed by
the cyclonic nature of the man as to be incapable of the slightest
resistance. Whatever may have been the motives of all the parties
concerned, the fact is that Piranesi was married to the descendant of
the ancient Romans exactly five days after he first laid eyes on her
classic features! Immediately after the wedding, having placed side
by side his wife’s dowry and his own finished plates, together with
his unfinished designs, he informed his presumably astonished bride
that their entire fortune was now before them, but that in three years’
time her portion should be doubled; which proved to be no boast but
a promise that he actually fulfilled.
According to report, he told his friends that he was marrying in order
to obtain the money required for the completion of his great book on
Roman Antiquities. However, even if he did marry for money, he
maintained all his life, to the poor woman’s great discomfort, as
jealous a watch over his wife as could be expected of the most
amorous of husbands; so his affections as well as his vanity may,
perhaps, have been called into play by his marriage. At any rate, his
ideas as to family life were worthy of the most severe Roman
paterfamilias. His son, Francesco, born in 1756, relates that, when
absorbed in his studies, he would quite forget the hours for meals,
while his five children, neither daring to interrupt him nor eat without
him, experienced all the miseries of hunger. His domestic coercion
and discipline were doubtless extreme, but the family would seem to
have lived not too unhappily.

Piranesi. View of the “Campo Vaccino”

The Site of the Ancient Roman Forum showing the Arch of
Septimius Severus, Columns of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans
and of the Temple of Concord and, in the distance, the Arch
of Titus, the Colosseum, etc., etc.
Size of the original etching, 16⅛ × 21½ inches
 Piranesi. The Arch of Titus
In this plate can be seen a favorite device of Piranesi’s,
which is to enhance the size and stability of massive
architecture by placing on some part of the ruin a human
figure in active motion. The Arch of Titus was built in
commemoration of the taking of Jerusalem. The vault is richly
coffered and sculptured, and the interior faces of the piers
display reliefs of Titus in triumph, with the plunder of the
temple at Jerusalem.
Size of the original etching, 18⅝ × 27¾ inches

Every two years, if not oftener, a monumental book would make its
appearance, to say nothing of separate plates, and Piranesi was
now a famous man. With the exception of Winckelmann, he did more
than any one to spread a knowledge and love of classic art, while his
learning and his researches aroused a widespread appreciation of
the nobility of Roman ruins, thereby largely contributing to their
excavation and protection. His exhaustive acquaintance with
antiquity and his impassioned admiration for its beauty, combined
with his singular and interesting character, caused him to mingle with
all that was most remarkable in the world of arts and letters in Rome,
at the same time bringing him into relation with whatever foreigners
of distinction might visit the city. He was, however, then and always a
poor man, for his first important work, “Le Antichità Romane,” sold in
the complete set for the ridiculous pittance of sixteen paoli, or about
seventeen lire, while later the Pope was wont to pay him only a
thousand lire for eighteen gigantic volumes of etchings. The very fact
that his fertility was so enormous, lowered the price it was possible
to ask for his plates during his lifetime, just as since his death it has
militated against a correct valuation of his talent. Forty years after he
came to Rome, he wrote to a correspondent that he had made, on
an average, some seven thousand lire of modern money a year, out
of which he had had to support his family, pay for the materials
required in his business, and gather together that collection of
antiquities which was a part of his stock in trade.
The rapidity with which Piranesi worked, and the number of plates,
all of unusually large dimensions, which he executed, are so
extraordinary as to leave one bewildered by the thought of such
incomprehensible industry. Competent authorities vary in their
statements as to the number of plates produced by Piranesi, but
accepting as correct the lowest figure, which is thirteen hundred, it
will be found that for thirty-nine years he produced, on a rough
average, one plate every two weeks. Ordinarily, great
productiveness will be found to have damaged the quality of the
work accomplished, but this is not true in the case of Piranesi.
Although his work is of varying merit, like that of all true artists, and
even comprises examples lacking his usual excellence, there is no
plate which betrays any signs of hurry or careless workmanship,
while in many the meticulous finish is remarkable. Such an output is
in itself phenomenal, yet in preparation for these works he found the
time to pursue archæological researches and studies, in themselves
sufficiently exhaustive to have occupied the life of an ordinary man.
Moreover, in his capacity of architect, he executed various important
restorations, including those of the Priorato di Malta, where he is
buried, and of Santa Maria del Popolo. Most of his restorations were
undertaken by command of the Venetian, Pope Clement XIII, who
bestowed on him the title of Knight, or Cavaliere, a distinction of
which he was proud, as he was of his membership in the “Royal
Society of Antiquaries” in London, of which he was made an
honorary fellow in 1757.

Piranesi. The Arch of Titus

Showing the relief of the Triumph of Titus and the carrying
away of the Seven-branched Candle-stick from Jerusalem. A
particularly beautiful and not very well-known plate, which
clearly shows Piranesi’s fine sense of composition, and his
keen appreciation of that singularly picturesque contrast
between the ancient ruins and the more modern buildings in
which they were then embedded.
Size of the original etching, 15⅞ × 24¼ inches
 Piranesi. Façade of St. John Lateran
Piranesi, almost without exception, placed a written description
of the scene on every one of his plates, using it as a
decorative feature. In this case it proves an integral part of a
group which makes an interesting etching out of what
otherwise would have been a simple architectural drawing.
Size of the original etching, 18⅞ × 27½ inches

The question of how much assistance Piranesi received in the

execution of his plates is an interesting one. In a few prints, the
figures were etched by one Jean Barbault, whose name sometimes
appears on the margins with that of Piranesi. The latter’s son,
Francesco, was taught design and architecture by his father, whose
manner he reproduced exactly, although none of the numerous
etchings which he left behind him show any signs of those qualities
which constitute the greatness of his parent’s work. The daughter,
Laura, also etched in the manner of her father and has left some
views of Roman monuments. These two children, together with one
of his pupils, Piroli, undoubtedly aided him, but their moderate skill is
a proof that their assistance could not have been carried very far.