Wavy vine relief in the Villa Medici (Medici Garland)

In elegant scrolls, the vine springs from a wreath of acanthus leaves at the bottom of the sheet. The vine unfurls splendidly in long curling forms that are counterposed by variously shaped leaves, flowers, and fruits. All manner of creatures populate the vegetal forms – most noticeably birds perching or clutching tendrils for their nest – but a closer inspection also reveals a lizard, snails, a mouse, a bee, a grasshopper, and a butterfly. The idealized vine, executed in bold strokes of red chalk, is derived from an ancient relief frieze found in the Villa Medici in Rome. Its design was widely disseminated and reproduced in drawings and prints. The cracks here, executed in black overdrawing, represent real fractures in the marble. By choosing to reproduce the panel in its fractured state in his etching, Piranesi demonstrates an antiquarian purpose to his art.