Originally published: Fragments from Greek and Roman architecture. New York : W.W. Norton & Co., 1981. (The Classical America series in art and architecture)

The Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris was a famous training ground in the classical arts, and the renderings of its architects sent to study in Rome are perhaps the finest record of the details of classical architecture ever made. In training their eyes in the use of proportion and the distribution of light and shade, these students achieved images with three-dimensionality and effects of scale that capture details more effectively than any photograph. Hector d'Espouy (1854-1929), a teacher at the Ecole and a leading muralist of his day, collected these drawings (including some of his own) in several large folio volumes. This splendid collection is a distillation of the best of these drawings, featuring images of the Acropolis, the Parthenon, fragments from Pompeii, Roman temples, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, and numerous other sites and artifacts. Executed in the demanding technique of India ink and water color rendering, the drawings exhibit a uniformly high level of scholarship and beauty of presentation. Classical architecture appeals to a large audience (the Dover edition of Vitruvius' Ten Books on Architecture is currently in its 28th printing!) and this splendid compendium of studies, enhanced with informative Introductory Notes by John Blatteau and Christiane Sears, is sure to appeal to that audience. It will be welcomed by any architect, classicist or student who loves the simplicity, grace, and elegance that characterized the buildings of ancient Greece and Rome.