Pavia 1904

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan made this etching, Pavia, with tonal contrasts and a detailed composition. I wonder what it was like to stand there, on that busy street in Italy, looking up at the architecture? What might he have been thinking as he looked up to that enormous dome? The artist created a network of tiny hatching lines to make the image. I see a lively street with people eating, talking, and minding their business. And then, in the top left corner, what are those little doodles? Are those figures, faces, or just random scribbles? I can imagine MacLaughlan, in his studio, working with his etching needle, scratching into the metal, thinking about the old masters and how they depicted architectural space. He's one artist in a long line, talking to the others with lines and marks.