Press Release - Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz

PRESS
RELEASE
25
November
2013
http://expo.khi.fi.it
FLORENCE CIRCA 1900: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEW.
An online exhibition by the Photo Library of
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut.
the
From 25 November 2013 the Photo Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in
Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut will present 48 photographs and graphic works in
an online exhibition.
Following the discovery of the daguerrotype, presented for the first time in Paris in 1839,
Florence became an important centre for the dissemination of new photographic
techniques. From 1842 much experimentation was carried out in this city on the method
known as “negative/positive”, which William Henry Fox Talbot had developed in London.
In subsequent years, after various other innovations, photographic techniques rapidly
improved resulting in the emergence of the real “industrial production” of photographs.
Alphonse Bernoud, John Brampton Philpot, the Fratelli Alinari, Giacomo Brogi and Giorgio
Sommer were active in Florence from the 1850s, dedicating themselves not only to
photographic portraits or documentary photography of events or city views and
landscapes, but also shots of works of art and architecture. This new typology soon found
many
fields
of
application,
ranging
between
experimental,
art
and
souvenirs:
photographs of important works of art and Florentine architectural complexes were not
only useful to travellers as souvenirs or art aficionados as a tool for their research, but
they were also used within the antiques market, which derived great profit from the
possibility of photographically reproducing art objects. After the city was elected capital
of the young Kingdom of Italy, photography also asserted its function as historical and
social collective memory. It is mainly the photographic campaigns aimed at documenting
the transformation of the urban space that provide us with a record of medieval Florence,
demolished at the time by modernization works. Like no other means, photography
represents an essential link that contributed to the creation of the "Florence myth" in the
19th century.
The online exhibition has been organized on the occasion of the exhibition “Florenz!”
opened at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn and was conceived in cooperation with the
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. Several photographs and graphic works featuring in
the online exhibition can be admired at the exhibition in Bonn from 22 November 2013 to
9 March 2014. (LINK: www.bundeskunsthalle.de/ausstellungen/florenz.html )
FLORENCE CIRCA 1900: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEW.
An online exhibition by the Photo Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz Max-Planck-Institut
Concept: Ute Dercks, Almut Goldhahn
Texts: Ute Dercks
Coordination: Almut Goldhahn
Online from 25 November 2013 at http://expo.khi.fi.it
The next online exhibition will open in spring and will focus on a research topic of the Institute.
Further information:
Dott.ssa Stefania Clio Lösch
Head of Public Relations
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
Via Giuseppe Giusti 44, 50121 Firenze
Tel.: +39 055 249 11 90, Fax: +39 055 244394
[email protected]
www.khi.fi.it/
PRESS
RELEASE,
25
November
2013
FLORENCE CIRCA 1900: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEW. An online exhibition by the photo
library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut of Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
PRESS RELEASE
25 November 2013
Images
Plan of the demolition and
reconstruction of the city
centre, approved on 8
March 1888, lithograph, 45
x 57.5 cm, inv. no 94237,
© Kunsthistorisches
Institut in Florenz – MaxPlanck-Institut
Campanile and Cathedral
façade with Baroque
pictorial decoration,
Giuseppe Carocci, circa
1840, aquatint, 30.2 x
19.5 cm, inv. no. 74403,
© Kunsthistorisches
Institut in Florenz – MaxPlanck-Institut
Row of houses and the
Loggia del Pesce at the
Mercato Vecchio before
demolition, photo:
Giuseppe Baccani, circa
1887, wet collodion print
12.5 x 17.4 cm, inv. no.
74310,
© Kunsthistorisches
Institut in Florenz - MaxPlanck-Institut
View of the Cathedral from
the southwest, photo:
Giorgio Sommer, circa
1870, albumen print 18.3
x 24.3 cm, inv. no. 10690,
© Kunsthistorisches
Institut in Florenz – MaxPlanck-Institut
Collection of photographic
material ("Pittura italiana”)
from the circle of Jacob
Burckhardt, circa 1900?,
photo: Stefano Fancelli,
photograph and digital
print, inv. no. 292027294908,
© Kunsthistorisches
Institut in Florenz – MaxPlanck-Institut
PRESS
RELEASE,
25
November
2013
FLORENCE CIRCA 1900: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEW. An online exhibition by the photo
library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut of Florence - Max-Planck-Institut