Fontein in de tuin van Villa Il Riposo dei Vescovi in Fiesole c. 1929

Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp made this etching of a fountain in the garden of Villa Il Riposo dei Vescovi, in Fiesole. It’s an intricate little world, isn't it? I can imagine Nieuwenkamp hunched over his copper plate, meticulously scratching and biting into the metal to conjure this vision. What kind of fountain is this? It’s like a beckoning. Look at those lines forming the stone, each one is carefully placed. And the way the light is captured, almost trapped, within the trees and water, it’s like he’s trying to hold onto a memory or a feeling. The artist's fascination with texture and detail reminds me of Piranesi, or maybe even some of the Northern Renaissance engravers. There's a dialogue happening across time, a conversation about how we see and how we translate what we see into lines and shapes. I just love how artists riff off of each other like that, don’t you?