Design for an arena by the 18th century Veronese architect Adriano Cristofoli.

Adriano Cristofoli was an important architect of his day designing many new buildings in Verona and the surrounding area. This design however appears to be of an ancient building, of the amphitheatre (often called the Arena) in Verona depicted in its ruined form on prints PAH6113 and PAH6114. The design (made up of two sheets, PAH6115 and PAH6116) shows how it might have looked originally.

This is one of a small number of prints within the Herschel collection demonstrating an interest in the architecture of important buildings.

There are two instances of the Herschels travelling to Italy in the 19th century one of which in all probability resulted in the aquisition of this print. The first is in the 1820s when John Herschel (Snr) made a number of trips across the continent with friends, mainly from Cambridge, to meet important scientists and carry out experiments. The other was much later, in the 1870s when a number of John's daughters travelled to Italy as part of their education in art.