Piranesi's nightmare

Piranesi's LA PRIGIONE È (NEL)LA MENTE (The Prison of the Mind) gives a graphic illustration of the lingering struggle (even in our own day!) between Enlightenment and Medieval paradigms of the architecture of the mind; of the gnawing worries and torments that magnify without respite rather than clarify; a failure to exchange grotesque figures, dark endless subterranean passages and rooms for the investigation of psychological causes; the 'inner spectator' of the world imprisoned in gloomy superstitious imagery, aptly called 'Carceri d'Invenzione'.

Here's art presaging self-inflicted tortures that result from a willful refusal to acknowledge with Locke that "No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience." I'm still amazed at how much of the world everywhere is still stuck in Piranesi's nightmare..