Via San Vitale, Bologna
Medium
Etching in black on blue laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 15.8 × 11.9 cm (6 1/4 × 4 11/16 in.); Sheet: 18.6 × 14.9 cm (7 3/8 × 5 7/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11885
Art Historical Context
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan's *Via San Vitale Bologna* (1904) captures the timeless charm of Bologna's historic streetscape in a delicate etching. This Canadian-American artist, active during the etching revival of the late 19th early 20th centuries specialized in intimate views of European architecture, blending precision with poetic atmosphere. Via San Vitale, lined with medieval towers and arcades, evokes the city's Renaissance heritage, inviting viewers to wander its sun-dappled paths. Printed in black ink on blue laid paper—a textured, handmade sheet that enhances tonal depth—the etching mea...
About the Artist
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan (1876–1938) was born on November 9 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, though he is recognized as an American artist after his family relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1890. There, as a teenager, he immersed himself in the Boston Public Library's collections of old master prints, studying works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, and eighteenth-century E...