Theater Marcellus, Rome

Ernest Roth’s etching technique involved slowly and laboriously applying acid to the plate in touches with a feather rather than immersing the plate in an acid bath. This gave him minute control over the tonal value of every line. His care with tone is particularly evident in this etching of the Theater Marcellus, a hallmark of Roman urban architecture completed during the reign of Augustus, which Roth visited during his extensive European travels. The artist juxtaposes the strata of ancient pillars with a modern urban tenement draped with laundry; only a narrow, well-worn street separates the two. As Roth’s fellow etcher John Taylor Arms remarked of this print, "the whole breathes the very spirit of ancient Rome in its modern setting."