Indeed the Italian designer would influence several English architects and raise the profile of Egyptianizing decor, and Walpole’s recognition of the “sublime” in Piranesi’s work would be echoed in similar arguments employed during later cycles of Egyptian revival. While Piranesi’s efforts to resurrect Egyptian motifs were not universally admired, Horace Walpole encouraged his colleagues to “study the sublime dreams of Piranesi … he has imagined scenes that would startle geometry, and exhaust the Indies to realize” (Anecdotes of Painting in England, 3rd ed., vol.
Piraensi, like Fischer von Erlach before him, argued that Egyptian architectural forms were the origin, via the Etruscans, of Roman architecture. Through his publications, writings, and the construction of the Caffè degli Inglesi (English Coffee House) at the Piazza di Spagna, Rome, Piranesi promoted the incorporation of Egyptian styles and motifs in architecture and interior design. The elaborate interior designs of Giovanni Battista Piranesi epitomize the pre-Napoleonic Egyptian revival in eighteenth century Europe.