The impossible architecture of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Monday, 07 October 2024

The impossible architecture of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Added: 03.03.2015 5:09 | 16 views | 0 comments

KSD: Even in his early 20s, Giovanni Battista Piranesi could sense his dream of being an architect slipping like little drops of mercury through his nervous fingers. Eventually he would be given a single, small commission, the restoration of the Santa Maria del Priorato, but for the remainder of his time on the planet he was unable to secure work as an architect, so he fell back on an unprosperous career of architectural printmaking. Some say this tormented him. It has been speculatedand speculation is all we have to go on since his autobiography was lost in England in the mid-1800sthat his most famous set of prints, "The Prisons," or "Le Carceri d'Invenzione" (The Imaginary Prisons), were born out of a personal crisis: he was the most prolific architectural mind of his time, and no one would let him build a building. Others say the original idea for the 14 etchings, later expanded to 16, were conceived during a confused and apparently horrific fever dream. Whatever the case th...