# The Round Tower, plate 3 from the second edition of Carceri d'invenzione (Imaginary Prisons)

- By: Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778)
- Date: 1750, reworked 1761
- Medium: Etching, engraving, sulphur tint, and burnishing in black on ivory laid paper
- Classification: Print
- Dimensions: Image: 54.2 × 41 cm (21 3/8 × 16 3/16 in.); Plate: 54.9 × 41.6 cm (21 5/8 × 16 7/16 in.); Sheet: 56.1 × 42.5 cm (22 1/8 × 16 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Italy
- Credit line: Joseph Brooks Fair Memorial Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/74624)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d166f39b-41c5-2239-e00c-f4bf6aeae430/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In addition to dramatic views of Roman architecture, Giovanni Battista Piranesi created a series of prison interiors that were entirely invented. These vast, entangled passageways and cavernous chambers were first printed around 1750. Ten years later, Piranesi reworked the plates, heightening their ominous state in an implied critique of social injustice.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0