(attributed to) J M W Turner, “Dark Prison (Carcere Oscura)”, after Piranesi (1790–99)
It must be hard to keep a place with ceilings so high and archways so open effectively dark and foreboding. This feels so spacious for a prison. The series of prisons by Piranesi this drawn after has the opposite effect: an oppressive, claustrophobia and paranoia-inducing clutter of lines and ladders and stairs, like an MC Escher drawing but without the joy of infinity. The contrast between the two makes one consider the psychology of imprisonment, whether a open space with no freedom can be as nerve-racking as tightly bound enclosure.
