Head of Our Savior, from Arringhi's "Roma Subterranea"
1829
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
1829
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
This lithograph shows a bearded man’s face, lit from the side. His eyes look tired, even sad. The artist used a greasy crayon on limestone to print this—no paint, just ink and pressure. It’s a proof, so no letters or numbers are added yet. Henry Noel Humphreys was a British artist who loved old ruins. He copied early Christian art for a book about Roman catacombs. This image came from that project, meant to look ancient even in 1829. This method is called lithography.
