Model and image: Art reproductions

From the outset, photography served as a tool for documenting monuments and works of art. The seemingly objective nature of the photographic image was regarded as a guarantee of accurate, unaltered reproduction, making it the ideal method for capturing and reproducing art. Photographing sculptures, as three-dimensional objects, presented a particular challenge. Photographers had to carefully select the viewpoint and lighting to ensure that the sculpture's spatial qualities were conveyed as effectively as possible within the two-dimensional medium of photography.

The British photographer James Anderson (1813-1877) was a pioneer in this field of photography in Rome. His images often depicted sculptures from a slight side angle, enhancing their three-dimensional appearance. Due to poor indoor lighting, exposure times could be very long. For example, Tommaso Cuccioni's (circa 1790-1864) photograph of the Galleria delle Statue in the Vatican Museums required an exposure time of several hours. The gradual movement of light across the sculptures produced a soft, molten-like sheen, blurring the contours and adding a unique quality to the images.

The widespread dissemination of photographs contributed to the fact that Italian works of art became a universal educational asset and, in particular, promoted academic study in the university subjects of classical archaeology and art history. However, the ownership of painted copies remained a privilege reserved for wealthy collectors. Adolf Friedrich von Schack, in addition to his collection of original paintings by contemporary German artists, amassed an extensive collection of copies of old master paintings. These were executed in the 1860s and 1870s by young artists such as Franz Lenbach (1836-1904) and August Wolf (1842-1915) in museums and churches across Italy and Spain. His collection notably featured numerous copies of Venetian Renaissance paintings.

Back to Start