The Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco Presents ‘Piranesi’s Rome and the Classical Imaginary’
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Frontispiece: Fantasy of Ruins with a Statue of Minerva (detail), from the Vedute di Roma, etching, c. 1748. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
SAN FRANCISCO (December 4, 2025) – The Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco (USF) presents ‘Piranesi’s Rome and the Classical Imaginary’ from December 4, 2025 through February 16, 2026. Collaboratively curated by students in USF’s M.A. in Museum Studies program, led by Professor Kate Lusheck, the exhibit is free and open to the public.
This exhibition explores the interplay between imagination, historical memory, and architectural documentation in period etchings executed by the 18th-century Venetian architect and printmaker, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1776). Bringing together more than 20 monumental prints by Piranesi and his influential predecessor, Alessandro Specchi (Italian, 1668-1729), the exhibition highlights Piranesi’s mastery of the etching medium through his re-envisioning of 18th-century Rome and its ancient and modern monuments.
Produced for a new age of collectors and tourists inspired by the cultural treasures and “speaking ruins” of the Eternal City, these prints highlight Piranesi’s idiosyncratic, poetic vision and creativity through iconic city views, ancient ruins, classically-inspired architectural plans, and imaginary prison and other fantastical scenes of Rome. The exhibit features works from the collections of the Donohue Rare Book Room at USF and the Mills College Art Museum at Northeastern University, Oakland.
About Piranesi
Born in Venice, Piranesi trained in architecture, draftsmanship, archaeology, and theatrical set design, all of which influenced his drawings and prints practice in Rome. Widely collected by both locals and tourists, his prolific, large-scale etchings, and those of his influential predecessor, architect and draftsman Alessandro Specchi, still contribute to the memory of ancient and 18th-century Rome and to an appreciation of Piranesi’s extraordinary creative talent and vision.
About Thacher Gallery
The Thacher Gallery is a public art gallery in the University of San Francisco’s Gleeson Library
where creativity, scholarship, and community converge. The gallery is free and open to the public daily from 12:00-6:00 p.m., whenever the library is open. Located at 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco.
About the University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco is a private, Jesuit Catholic university that reflects the diversity, optimism, and opportunities of the city that surrounds it. USF offers more than 230 undergraduate, graduate, professional, and certificate programs in the arts and sciences, business, law, education, and nursing and health professions. At USF, each course is an intimate learning community in which top professors encourage students to turn learning into positive action, so the students graduate equipped to do well in the world — and inspired to change it for the better.
