St. Croix de Jerusalem, from "Roman Ruins"

An etching of crumbling stone walls and a tall broken pillar rising from rubble, with a vaulted arch and ivy-covered masonry at right under a pale sky. Fine parallel hatching gives the ruins their texture and depth.

Look closer: Plants and small shrubs grow from the tops and cracks of the broken columns.

Artist

Wenceslaus Hollar

Date

1650

Medium

Etching; second state of two

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

4000 × 2596 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917