Civitavecchia

 

Edmond Casarella

  1920 - 1996 (biography)

1952  

Color paper cut relief 

23 3/4 x 9 5/8"  

pencil, lower right 

proof from an unstated edition 

dated after the signature 

 

laid paper 

published 

artist 

NC188 

$2,500.00 

Civitaveccia (old city) is the principal port for Rome and central Italy and the main ferry link to Sardinia. The port was founded early in the 2nd century by the emperor Trajan on a stretch of coast known as Centumcellae. The town flourished during late Roman times, but it has been attacked and destroyed over the centuries. In the 9th century when the town was under attack, the people fled to the Allumiere Mountains, where a walled town was constructed by Pope Leo IV in 854. Later the inhabitants returned to the old site, hence the name Civitaveccia. With his color paper relief print, Casarella captured the essence of the architecture of this city with buildings stacked upon one another as they ascend the hillside overlooking the port. The verso of this impression is dark and shiny, an apparent result of transferring ink to paper by rubbing the pack of the paper with a spoon.