Outer Staircase of a Gothic Ruin
Medium
gray and brown wash and framing lines in pen and black ink
Dimensions
{"sheet":{"height":0.241,"width":0.168},"image":{"height":0.232,"width":0.152}}
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Anonymous gift in honor of Leona E. Prasse
Accession Number
1980.218
Tags
About this artwork
Rejecting the preference for the landscape and architecture of Italy, as seen in the work of many of his contemporaries, Domenico Quaglio portrayed the buildings of his native Germany. Here, Quaglio depicted a man, woman, and child who are dwarfed by the immense scale of a Gothic cathedral’s ruined arch, within which the figures appear. Overrun by vines and set within a dense forest, the architecture signifies the magnitude of God in the Christian faith and the smallness of mankind.