FRATELLI ALINARI (19th), Vesuvius. Vast lava rock landscape, around 1880, albumen paper print Fratelli Alinari (19th century): Wide lava rock landscape with posing person Vesuvius, Campania, c. 1880, albumen paper print Technique: albumen paper print Inscription: Lower middle signed in the printing plate: "(Ed.ne Alinari)". Lower middle inscribed in the printing plate: "Napoli - Dintorni. Vesuvio. Lava del 1897 con l'atrio del Cavallo.". Lower middle numbered in the printing plate: "P.e I.a N.o 11695.". Date: c. 1880 Description: The photograph shows a spectacular shot, the panoramic size of which emphasises the force of nature. Only at second glance do you realise the tiny staffage figures posing on the lava-covered slopes of the Somma. The sharp, detailed reproduction of the lava rock with its edges, nuances and effects of light and shadow is remarkable. Here it becomes clear that the medium of photography could be ideally instrumentalised for geological research. Original photography with high sharpness of detail. An early example of travel photography. Around the middle of the 19th century, more and more tourists from bourgeois circles travelled to Italy. At that time, photographs could only be taken at great expense in terms of time and with expensive, unwieldy equipment. This made many tourists all the more grateful for the work of the professional photographer's studios on site, so that they could bring back a souvenir from their holiday home or collect them as mementos. Famous photographers such as Carlo Naya, Giorgio Sommer and the Alinari brothers photographed the most famous sights in their home cities and travelled themselves to photograph their customers' favourite destinations and offer them as albumen prints. Ancient art treasures were also photographed and offered to travellers. The high-quality photographs of sculptures and frescoes continued to make an important contribution to documenting the art treasures and making them accessible to scholars from all over Europe, who previously had to rely on copies or engravings if they were unable to view the original themselves. "Fratelli Alinari" in Florence are the oldest surviving photographic company in the world: founded in 1852, a good two decades after the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce succeeded in capturing an image on a tin plate. The Alinari brothers were Romualdo (1830-1891), Leopoldo (1832-1865) and Guiseppe (1836-1892). Leopoldo began taking photographs during the daguerreotype period and worked for the lithographer Guiseppe Bardi, with whom he founded a joint photographic studio in 1850. In 1854, Leopoldo bought Bardi's shares and, together with his brothers, founded the Fratelli Alinari studio. It became one of the most important Italian studios of the 19th century and later one of the largest photographic archives in the world, which still exists today. Keywords: Italy view, documentary photography, travel photography, Vesuvius, volcano, lava rock, 19th century, Historicism, Landscape, Italy, Pompeii (Campanian), Size: Albumen paper: 19,7 cm x 25,6 cm (7,8 x 10,1 in)