920 - FRATELLI ALINARI (19th century), South Bronze Door, Baptistery, Florence, circa 1880, albumen paper print

FRATELLI ALINARI (19th century), South Bronze Door, Baptistery, Florence, circa 1880, albumen paper print Fratelli Alinari (19th century): Southern bronze door of the Baptistery in Florence, Battistero di Firenze, Andrea Pisano, c. 1880, albumen print Technique: albumen print, mounted on cardboard Inscription: Inscribed on the lower part of the printing plate: “(Ed.ne Alinari) P.e I.a N.o 1809. Firenze - Battistero. La Porta in bronzo al Sud. (A. Pisano, il Fregio è di Lorenzo e Vittorio Ghiberti.)”. Date: c. 1880 Description: Original photograph with high sharpness of detail. An early example of travel photography. Around the middle of the 19th century, more and more tourists from middle-class circles traveled to Italy. At that time, taking photographs required a great deal of time and expensive, cumbersome equipment. This made many tourists all the more grateful for the work of professional photography studios on site, which allowed them to bring back a memento from afar for those who stayed at home or to collect as souvenirs. Famous photographers such as Carlo Naya, Giorgio Sommer, and the Alinari brothers photographed the most famous sights of their hometowns and traveled themselves to photograph their clients’ most popular destinations, offering these images as albumen prints. Ancient art treasures were also photographed and made available to travelers. The high-quality photographs of sculptures and frescoes continued to make an important contribution to documenting art treasures and making them accessible to scholars from all over Europe, who previously had to rely on tracings or engravings if they could not view the original for themselves. “Fratelli Alinari” in Florence is the oldest photographic company still in existence 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 Giuseppe (1836–1892). Leopoldo began taking photographs during the daguerreotype era and worked for the lithographer Giuseppe Bardi, with whom he established a joint photography 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 photo archives in the world, which still exists today. Person: Featuring: Andrea Pisano (c. 1290, Pontedera near Pisa – c. 1348, Orvieto) Italian sculptor, goldsmith, and architect Keywords: Travel photography; Souvenir; Veduta; View; Architectural photography; Sculpture; Medieval; Gothic; Renaissance; Sculpture; Santa Maria del Fiore; Duomo; Cathedral; Baptistery of San Giovanni; Baptistery; Bronze casting; Portal; Andrea Pisano, 19th century, Historicism, Architecture, Italy, Size: Cardboard: 33.6 cm x 27.9 cm (13.2 x 11 in), Image: 24.2 cm x 17.3 cm (9.5 x 6.8 in) Condition: Good condition. The photograph and backing are noticeably wavy. Minimal bump marks along the upper edge of the sheet. The backing board is creased and torn on the right side.