Souvenirs de Rome
Souvenirs de Rome is a set of engraved views of Roman monuments and streets, made by Gaetano Cottafavi, Gabriele Fontana, D. Amici and P. Parboni around 1800, probably as a souvenir album for travellers. The plates show temple façades, triumphal arches and columns set among ordinary Roman buildings, with small figures of passers-by, dogs and laundry giving scale. A designer could take from them the fine-line engraved hatching for architecture, the sharp contrast of pale stone against dark shadow, and the way tiny figures make ruins feel lived in.
