Italian engraver, etcher and architect. Piranesi instructed in graving by his father and was creating his own work and assisting with his father’s by 1775. He was made a government official of the Roman Republic when the French Revolutionary Army occupied the Italian peninsula (1798). He was economically ruined when Pietro Piranesi sold his share of their engraving firm (1807), and he was later granted money by the Emperor Napoleon on the condition that Francesco’s next work be dedicated only to the Emperor. Piranesi died before he could complete the work. At the time of his death was considered the best engraver in Europe.