giambattista piranesi was most upset by the idea that greek was the divine source of architecture.e wasn't roman. he was venetian. he'd come to rome at 19. he climbed over the ruins. he excavated and recorded the past in over 1,000 views, not only the past, but the present of rome, too. copper was very expensive. he put his wife's dowry into an investment into these great plates, so he was very worried. he thought the french might go to athens. although he had french friends amongst these critics and architects in rome, he attacked them. he ridiculed greek architecture. but then, just before he died in 1778, he himself went south to pestum, and in 15 or 16 wonderful drawings, he conjured up the magic of greek architecture as never before. he showed that the column, that the french had thought of as a structural element which they wanted to express honestly, was really a piece of sculpture, a piece of beautiful sculpture. after that, with the discovery of pestum and greek architecture itself, the aesthetic vision of europe changed. so, as often in the history of western art, changes