Eighteen Views of Rome: The Piazza Farnese (recto); Cartouche (verso)
1664
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1664
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a busy Roman square framed by two tall fountains and a grand palace with a heavy, overhanging roof. This drawing was made as a study for an etching—like a test print before the final version. The artist stood in the square, sketching the buildings just as Michelangelo had left them a century earlier. The palace’s top floor and deep cornice were Michelangelo’s finishing touches, giving the whole building a bold, shadowed edge. If you like how Cruyl turned stone into lines, look up *chiaroscuro*—the way light and dark shape a scene.
