Cabiria
Leopoldo Metlicovitz, 1914
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 12% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyThe original Italian lithographed poster for Giovanni Pastrone's 1914 super-production, drawn by the Trieste-born affichiste Leopoldo Metlicovitz for Itala Film. Cabiria ran over two hours, invented the travelling 'carrello' shot that took its name from the film, and carried intertitles by Gabriele D'Annunzio. It taught Griffith and everyone after him that a motion picture could be monumental. The way the figures are staged in receding planes rather than flattened to the sheet — Metlicovitz is selling depth, the thing the film's moving camera had just discovered. Antiquity rebuilt in Turin, printed on paper, pasted to a wall.
- Maker
- Leopoldo Metlicovitz
- Date
- 1914
- Medium of the original
- One-sheet poster
- Original held by
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Wikimedia Commons · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Cleared for print
- Catalogue number
- PA-00814
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 8 x 12 in | 125 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 11 x 14 in | 96 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 16 in | 88 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 18 in | 83 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | 62 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 24 in | 58 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | 50 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | 41 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 40 in | 35 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 29 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | 25 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,061 x 1,500 px, srgb, sRGB IEC61966-2.1
- Tone
- Darks 5, lights 233 of 255; 0% clipped light, 1% clipped dark
- Colour
- 33.4% vivid
- Sharpness
- 4.74
- Notes
- Vivid colour: canvas or luster paper shows it best
The Picture Palace
German Expressionism: shadow printed to the stone.
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