Entablature V (C.142) was the most materially layered work in Roy Lichtenstein's Entablature Series to this point — combining screenprint, lithograph, and collage with embossing, the physical construction of the work matching the complexity of the architectural ornament it depicted. A silver-grey metallic band ran across the picture, its reflective surface complemented by intricate printed decorative elements above and below — scroll patterns, dentil moulding, a surface that rewarded extended looking.

The embossing gave Entablature V (C.142) a three-dimensional quality that reinforced the work's dialogue with architectural space. Where earlier prints in the series had rendered three-dimensional forms as flat marks, the embossed passages here pushed the surface of the paper into actual relief — the print acquiring a physical depth that corresponded, in the most literal way, to the depth of the architectural mouldings it depicted. Lichtenstein had used embossing across multiple series, but in the Entablature context it carried a specific charge: making a print about architecture that was, in a small but precise way, architecturally present.

By 1976 the series was demonstrating the full range of Lichtenstein's technical ambition as a printmaker. The combination of four distinct processes within a single work required precise planning and execution, and Entablature V (C.142) shows the command that had developed across two decades of sustained print work — the complexity of means in service of a picture that earns every layer of it.

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