The Ancient South. Photography and Historical Monuments 1840-1880.
Snoeck| N° d'inventaire | 18651 |
| Format | 22 x 28 |
| Détails | 239 p., color and black and white illustrations, paperback with a flap cover. |
| Publication | Heule, 2014 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
The photographs presented in this exhibition were taken between 1845 (daguerreotypes) and the 1880s. A large space is given to the 1850s, "the golden age of photography", as well as to Édouard Baldus, whose aesthetic choices are in perfect harmony with the monumentality of the subjects represented. While many photographers, both amateur and professional, travel from Paris (the Bisson brothers, Louis-Alphonse Davanne, André Giroux, Émile Peccarère, Eugène Piot), others are based in the South of France: Antoine Crespon in Nîmes and Dominique Roman in Arles, followed by others who are less well known. A large part of the photographs exhibited are linked to the conservation and restoration policy implemented by the Commission of Historic Monuments, created in 1837. Some result from a direct order from the Administration (Héliographic Mission, 1851), others were commissioned by architects to accompany an estimate or to document a construction site, still others were taken to instruct a request for classification. The architect Henry Révoil, who often used photography, occupies a privileged position from this point of view. The photographs show monuments recently excavated (the castellum of Nîmes, the arch of Carpentras) or those undergoing restoration (the arenas of Nîmes, the temple of Vienne, the baths of Constantine), but also monuments destined to disappear (the ramparts of Narbonne); there will also be views of the first lapidary museums, installed in ancient temples or churches. In addition to the technical diversity, we wanted to emphasize the materiality of photography, including daguerreotypes, negatives, meter-long panoramas, and stereoscopic views. Prints of exceptional quality, intended to be included in exhibitions in their time, show us to what extent photography in the first decades was each time the result of aesthetic and technical choices, each print being unique. They are displayed alongside prints of a more "archaeological or documentary" spirit. Through its richness and the intrinsic beauty of many prints, photography here gives us a more direct image of Romanity than painting or prints would, at a time when ancient monuments were revealed to the public in all their integrity, stripped of what had distorted them over the centuries.
The photographs presented in this exhibition were taken between 1845 (daguerreotypes) and the 1880s. A large space is given to the 1850s, "the golden age of photography", as well as to Édouard Baldus, whose aesthetic choices are in perfect harmony with the monumentality of the subjects represented. While many photographers, both amateur and professional, travel from Paris (the Bisson brothers, Louis-Alphonse Davanne, André Giroux, Émile Peccarère, Eugène Piot), others are based in the South of France: Antoine Crespon in Nîmes and Dominique Roman in Arles, followed by others who are less well known. A large part of the photographs exhibited are linked to the conservation and restoration policy implemented by the Commission of Historic Monuments, created in 1837. Some result from a direct order from the Administration (Héliographic Mission, 1851), others were commissioned by architects to accompany an estimate or to document a construction site, still others were taken to instruct a request for classification. The architect Henry Révoil, who often used photography, occupies a privileged position from this point of view. The photographs show monuments recently excavated (the castellum of Nîmes, the arch of Carpentras) or those undergoing restoration (the arenas of Nîmes, the temple of Vienne, the baths of Constantine), but also monuments destined to disappear (the ramparts of Narbonne); there will also be views of the first lapidary museums, installed in ancient temples or churches. In addition to the technical diversity, we wanted to emphasize the materiality of photography, including daguerreotypes, negatives, meter-long panoramas, and stereoscopic views. Prints of exceptional quality, intended to be included in exhibitions in their time, show us to what extent photography in the first decades was each time the result of aesthetic and technical choices, each print being unique. They are displayed alongside prints of a more "archaeological or documentary" spirit. Through its richness and the intrinsic beauty of many prints, photography here gives us a more direct image of Romanity than painting or prints would, at a time when ancient monuments were revealed to the public in all their integrity, stripped of what had distorted them over the centuries.