Cecilia Metella's grave. Beautiful etching from 1796 by Francesco Morelli

The Tomb of Cecilia Metella. A beautiful etching from 1796 by Francesco Morelli featuring figures in the foreground; it has a small tear at the bottom and has been trimmed along the edges.

.... “Today I went to Nimfa Egeria, then to the Baths of Caracalla and the Appian Way, to see the ruined tombs and the best-preserved Cecilia Metella, which gives the proper sense of the wall’s solidity. These people worked tirelessly and calculated everything, except for the destructive fury of those who came after, before whom everything had to fall”... thus J.W. Goethe’s quintessential traveler describes this monument in 1786. 

François Morel was born around 1768 in Franche-Comté and died after 1830. He was a student of Volpato. He worked in Italy, especially in Rome, where he engraved religious themes and landscapes. See E. Benezit, volume 9, p. 833, Grund 1999. 

The piece is presented in a Pompeian red passe-partout with an ebonized wooden frame.

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