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In
the
Light
of
Rome:
Early
Photography
in
the
Capital
of
the
Art
World
1842-1871, a
new
exhibit
at
the
Bowdoin
College
Museum
of
Art
on
display
until
June
4,
2023,
offers
a
comprehensive
look
at
the
role
The
Eternal
City
played
in
the
development
of
early
photography.
The
112
photographs
in
a
variety
of
then-emerging
media
chronicle
not
only
the
developing
technical
capabilities
of
the
art
form
and
some
of
its
early
European
practitioners,
but
also
the
seductive
charms
Rome
continued
to
hold
for
artists,
throughout
the
ages,
but
most
especially
in
the
19th
century.
Europe
at
mid-late
19th
century
was
a
world
in
flux
with
revolutions
and
republican
movements
rocking
the
ancient
monarchies
and
industrialization
rapidly
changing
economic
and
social
norms.
In
the
years
captured
by
the
exhibition,
Italy
was
in
the
throes
of
the Risorgimento – the social and political movement culminating in the consolidation of the various Italian states into the Kingdom of Italy, which celebrated its victory in 1871 with the capture of Rome and the designation of the city as the capital of a unified Italy.
The significance of Rome for the Risorgimento leaders, Mazzini, Garibaldi, Cavour, and Victor Emanuel (who became the united Italy's first King), was symbolic as well as historic. Not only was it Italy's largest city, but it was its oldest, and with its roots in antiquity – in Etruscan and Roman civilization – it laid claim to a legacy of art, literature, music, science, philosophy, government, and social order. Throughout the entire 18th. and 19th centuries, the Neo- Classcists and Romantics made pilgrimages to Rome to visit the ruins of Antiquity and to gather what lessons they could about harmony, proportion, beauty – precepts that were cornerstones of Western art and thought. The Napoleonic Wars wreaked havoc across the continent, and in their wake, in the period covered by this exhibition, there was a brief rebirth of optimism and hope for a new Europe founded on more democratic principles.
The
photographers
represented
in
the
exhibition,
among
them
James
Anderson
and
Robert
Macphersopn
of
Britain,
Fr茅deric
Flach茅ron,
Firmin
Eugene
LeDien
of
France,
Giocomo
Caneva,
Adriano
de
Bonis,
and
Pietro
Dovizielli
of
Italy,
came
from
many
different
countries
and
artistic
traditions.
But
they
all
came
to
Rome
as
if
on
a
pilgrimage,
bringing
with
them
their
fledgling
art
form
in
the
hopes
of
capturing
images
of
a
city
whose
architecture
represented
both
greatness
and
decay
but
whose
artistic
spirit
was
as
undiminished
as
ever.
In
1842
photography
was
an
infant
science/art
form
with
the
latest
development
being
the
Daguerreotype,
a
process
that
involved
photographing
the
image
onto
a
mirror-like
silver-surfaced
plate
that
had
been
fumed
with iodine
vapor,
which
reacted
with
the
silver
to
form
a
coating
of
silver
iodide. The
result
appeared
as
a
positive
when
it
was
suitably
lit
and
viewed.
The
various
photographs
in
the
current
exhibition
experiment
with
these
discoveries,
using
glass
plates,
chemical
compounds
of
silver
and
salt,
and
various
exposure
lengths
to
light
to
obtain
the
desired
results.
What
is
so
striking
about
the
collection
on
display
is
the
painterly
quality
of
the
images.
The
photographers
are
seeking
to
capture
something
more
than
a
still
image
of
architectural
grandeur.
Rather
they
are
imbuing
the
works
with
breath
that
seems
to
emanate
from
the
light
itself.
Robert Macpherson's Palazzo Altoviti on the Tiber (c. 1851-57)
demonstrates this quality admirably. The building is a study in light and
shade, its form reflected in the river's waters, its angles casting shadows on
other buildings. There is a palpable sense of time of day - late afternoon)
and a vivid contrast between form and reflection.
The same sense of animation is felt in Eug猫ne Constant's Arch of Titus.
Images like these were favorites of the Neo-Classical and Romantic
landscape painters, so it is not surprising that Constant should take up the
theme of the aging triumphal arch, scarred by time yet imposing, still
dominating the houses in the foreground and standing majestically erect in
contrast to the pile of earth and stone on the left.
Through the arch one catches a tiny glimpse of the ruins of the Forum
which offer a serendipitous segue to Giocchino Altobelli's The Roman
Forum in the Moonlight. Altobelli's perspective, from the Capitoline Hill
allows him to look down slightly and capture the architecture and the long,
dark shadows the temple columns cast. The sky moves in moody fashion
across the image with gray streaks obscuring parts of the distant dome.
The chiaroscuro of the work is stunning; Italian Renaissance painters
developed the art of light and shade to its finest on canvas, but here a
compatriot photographer uses a combination of nature and man-made
chemical process to capture the same mysterious, haunting light.
Another photograph of the Forum by Fr茅d茅ric Flacheron is far more
structural and less atmospheric. The composition is bisected by the
column – placed just slightly to the right of center with the Arch of Titus
half visible over a wall to the left and Santa Maria Antiqua to the right. The
angularity and solidity of the forms gives a sense of peaceful strength.
A similar sense of architectural strength is evidenced in Firmin Eug猫ne Le
Dien and Gustav LeGray's photograph of the Basilica of Santa Maria in
Ara Coeli. The piazza is dominated by tall, draped figures on pedestals
lining the entryway. The light is late day with dark shadows on the fa莽ade
of the church and in the foreground. The light catches the figures, which
are seen from behind creating a sense of surreptitious viewing.
Calvert Richard Jones makes similar use of chiaroscuro in his photograph
of the Temple of Antonius and Faustina (1850) in which the colonnade of
vertical Corinthian columns is set in relief against diagonal shadows of light
. The vivid interplay of shadow and highlight makes the otherwise stolid
image a dynamic one.
The image of a Palm Tree near the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli seen
rising proudly above a wall is an unusual one, captured by the French
photographer de Pierre Antoine de Vaulx. (c. 1852) Nature in contrast to,
or outstripping, the works of man is a frequent Romantic motif, and here
the tree, which occupies center image, its leafy fronds spread in perfect
symmetry, dwarfs the tiny campanile visible in the distance. The tonal
quality of the photography is also appropriately softened to render the
foliage.
Another striking image that combines architecture and foliage by the
French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey is of Isola San
Bartholomeo, (1842). It shows a Romanesque church occupying center
with an arched stone bridge to the left. In the foreground is the river and a
tiny island filled with scrubby trees and brush. The entire photograph is
enveloped in a light haze which suggests the interplay of light and water,
and the artist manages to create a strong sense of texture with the glass-like
surface of the water, the various stone and tile textures of the buildings,
and the crisp brush.
Though all these photographs are early specimens of the medium and
though they are in black and white alone, these examples, together with the
entire exhibition, convey the complexity and subtlety of the photographers'
visions. There is the soft caress of light – very specific Italianate light;
there is the drama of shadow – deep, dark, soft or thrusting; together they
combine for that inimitable Italian artistic device: chiaroscuro, the
interplay of light and shade to create a sense of dynamic life.
The pictures in In The Light of Rome are filled with an animation. As one
strolls through the exhibition, one hears in one's head Respighi's The Pines
of Rome with its whispering fluidity. Indeed, in each of these images,
though they focus on the iconic architecture of Rome, the stones,
themselves, do breathe. And there is music in interplay of light and
shadow, form and insubstantial reflection.
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