“ The other and more prosaic service which Piranesi can still render to architects, and especially in these days of neo-Classic detail, is by means of his careful drawings of antique ornaments and vases from his own and his friends’ collections. Here he not only provides us with an immense fund of detail, but he draws that detail in a way which gives us at once the very essence of its character. It is a character all may not love, but few can avoid feeling how suitable it is to the age in which we live. ”

“ Although Piranesi was careful to see that he was always styled “Venetian Architect,” we have no very reliable evidence that he ever composed a building except on paper, and such paper plans as he published do notvii suggest great practical qualities. It is in his drawings of the ruins of ancient Rome that he gives us something at once more rare and more valuable than any ordinary architectural achievement. In them he shows us the inherent romance buried deep in Roman construction. ”

“ The romance he shows us is the romance of any enduring monument. It is the monumental quality of Roman construction which makes it akin to the great works of Nature, and the trees and vegetation in Piranesi drawings only help to demonstrate this kinship. The gesticulating figures serve aviii similar purpose. They are the men of a lesser generation gibbering over the work of ancestors they only half comprehend. ”