Landscape with Arched Tomb and an Obelisk 1540 - 1556

Léon Davent made this print, Landscape with Arched Tomb and Obelisk, in the mid-16th century, using etching. The image is all line, created by drawing through a wax ground on a metal plate, then bathing it in acid. The result is a kind of fantasy architecture, a landscape littered with classical ruins. It evokes a distant past, but also the labor and materials required to create such monuments. Stone doesn’t simply appear; it must be quarried, dressed, and transported. We see traces of this immense effort in the carefully delineated blocks, the arches and columns, all rendered with remarkable precision. Davent probably never saw such a site himself. Instead, he was likely inspired by classical sources, or perhaps by the drawings of other artists. But either way, his print invites us to imagine the real human cost of building a civilization, and the inevitable decay that follows. It reminds us that even the grandest achievements are ultimately subject to the forces of time and entropy.