Bau-Überreste und Ruinen
This 1863 German lithograph sheet, Bau-Überreste und Ruinen, was drawn by Ferdinand Knab and published in Munich as part of a series of architectural remains for artists and antiquarian readers. Its nine small plates show ruined castles, a cloister arch, a half-timbered house and a shadowed gateway in loose, atmospheric pencil-like tones. A designer could take from it the picturesque convention of crumbling masonry overgrown with vegetation, useful for weathered backdrops, fantasy settings or period scenery.
