Tommaso Cuccioni, Galleria delle Statue. Vatican, Museo Pio Clementino, c. 1853

Tommaso Cuccioni (c. 1790-1864)
Galleria delle Statue. Vatican, Museo Pio Clementino, c. 1853
Albumen print, 32,9 x 44,9 cm
München, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek, Inv. Nr. DS 1362

The Museo Pio Clementino, established in 1771 by Pope Clement XIV (1769-1774) and expanded by Pope Pius VI (1775-1799), is one of the oldest public museums in Europe, housing the most important ancient sculptures in the papal art collections. Several halls featuring Greek and Roman sculptures are arranged around the Cortile del Belvedere, where iconic pieces such as the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon group are displayed. The photograph shows the elongated Galleria delle Statue, home to renowned Vatican antiquities including the Eros Centocelle, Praxiteles' Apollo Sauroktonos (right, partly obscured by the tree trunk), the Amazon Mattei (right), and the Sleeping Ariadne. In the background, along the visual axis, the seated figure of Jupiter Verospi is visible in the adjoining Galleria dei Busti.

Tommaso Cuccioni (c. 1790-1864) initially worked as an engraver and owned an art shop where he sold prints and, from the 1840s, photographs. Around 1851, Cuccioni began taking his own photographs, specialising in views of Roman monuments and reproductions of artworks. He photographed on glass plates in unusually large formats, up to 38 x 48 centimetres. His most significant works as a photographer include his images of the frescoes in Palazzo Farnese and Villa Farnesina, which he published in folio-format portfolios.