Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 4

The Artefact and its Representations/Das Kunstwerk und seine Repräsentationen 11

Costanza Caraffa
Documentary Photographs as Objects and Originals

Photographs – as stated in 1975 by Heinrich Dilly – should be consi- as maintained by Joan M. Schwarz and Terry Cook among others.5
dered the »originals« of art history: they are not works of art them- Documentary photographs are not only representations of the
selves, but photographic reproductions of them, that form the object object (work of art) they are intended to document, but originals
of art-historical writing.1 Among the various forms of representation themselves.
of works of art photography plays a key role, which goes back to the Due to space constraints I will use some key concepts without
rhetoric of the presumed »impartiality« of photographic documen- commenting on them, even if there is a great deal to say about some
tation. In the 19th century photographic reproductions of works of terms such as »documentation« and »original.«6 In its usual conno-
art gained currency precisely by virtue of their promise of greater tation, the »documentary photograph« ought to provide a »neutral«
»veracity« compared to prints and drawings.2 Later theories on the image of the object represented with a view to the investigation of
indexicality and »transparency« of photography consolidated the reality – in particular the image of a monument or work of art. Yet
apparently indissoluble relation between photography and reali- documentary photographs are documents not only in relation to the
ty, between reproduction and original, focusing the attention ex- object they are intended to document, but also – precisely because
clusively on the referent, the object »that-has-been« (as Roland photography is not neutral – in relation to a whole series of other
Barthes would say) before the camera lens.3 The result of this ap- aspects that are, whether intentionally or not, registered in them:
proach is the reduction of photographs to their visual content. This they are documents, for example, of the contemporary level of
tends to suggest a shift from the utilitarian approach based on the the technological development of photography, of the interest of
content of the photographic document to a wider understanding research in a particular theme in a particular period, of different
of the functional context of its provenance, production and sedi- practices of displaying works of art in photographs, of the attributive
mentation. Thus the material turn that has characterized studies on history of a particular work of art as annotated on the mount of its
photography in recent years – with Elizabeth Edwards as the most photograph. Let us look to the Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches
important reference – has promoted a consideration of photographs Institut in Florenz for an example.
not just as two-dimensional images, but as three-dimensional In the »Painting/Gothic« section there are several boxes dedicat-
objects that exist in a spatial and temporal dimension, in social and ed to photographs of the works of Giotto, some of which contain
cultural contexts; they are endowed with a biography that is in large reproductions of the frescos in the Scrovegni chapel in Padua. A
part – though not exclusively – transacted within the archive.4 So series of 22 albumen prints was recently identified as dating back to
the archive is not just the place in which photographs are preserved, a photographic campaign started by Carlo Naya in 1863 and finished
but also that in which this biography can be restored to them. Here in 1865 (fig. 1).7 The art historian who flips through the photographs
we find not just (visual) information, but sedimented knowledge, in the box in search of illustrations of Giotto’s cycle will immedi-

Fig. 1
Carlo Naya, Rejection of Joachim‘s Sacrifice,
from the fresco cycle by Giotto in the
Scrovegni chapel in Padua.
Albumen print, photograph taken in 1865.
Mounting board: 34.2 x 25.5 cm;
photograph: 23.7 x 18.3 cm

824
11 The Artefact and its Representations/Das Kunstwerk und seine Repräsentationen

ately discard the photograph in question as an »old« photograph,


and one in which »you can’t see anything« – I quote here the title of
a famous book by Daniel Arasse.8 But what do these photographs
actually document? First of all it was one of the very first photo-
graphic campaigns carried out in the Scrovegni chapel. In the 1860s
photographic techniques still did not allow the correct representati-
on of colours in grey tones. The chemical products used to prepare
the negative plates were especially sensitive to short-wave light, so
that blue and violet on the negatives darkened quickly producing
almost white areas on the positives (the famous blue skies of Giotto,
or the cloak of the central figure). Red, green and especially yellow
instead produced very dark or even black areas in the reproductions.
For art historians, involved in the second half of the nineteenth cen-
tury in the »scientification« of their methods, photographic repro-
ductions of this kind were therefore problematic as their presumed
»objectivity« was seriously contradicted by the reversal of dark and
light values. Thus the first systematic photographic campaigns of
the 1860s and 1870s concentrated on subjects that were relatively
colourless or at least monochromatic such as sculptures, architec-
ture and drawings.9 Only after numerous experiments was the ortho-
chromatic process established around 1885, which ensured the
accuracy of relative colour values in black and white photographs. Fig. 2 Carlo Naya, The Birth of the Virgin, from the fresco cycle
The Naya campaign may be considered ground-breaking both in by Giotto in the Scrovegni chapel in Padua. Albumen print,
terms of the history of photographic techniques and in relation to photograph taken in 1865. Mounting board: 47.5 x 40.5 cm;
the history of the use of photography as an instrument of art history. photograph: 32.6 x 26.7 cm
While the photography campaign itself has been studied in-depth
by Sara Filippin,10 the examples in the Florentine Photothek provide
a starting point for the study of the spread and trading of Naya‘s centre »CAPPELLA DI GIOTTO IN PADOVA / (N. 1276 † 1336) /
photographs. In 1863 Naya obtained from the owners the exclusive FOTOGRAFIE TRATTE DAGLI ORIGINALI DI C. NAYA,« at the bottom
right to carry out the campaign, and therefore for a long time it was left »Riproduzione riservata,« and at the bottom right »Venezia
the only documentation of the Scrovegni chapel. Only after Naya‘s Ottobre 1865.«15 We also see, in pencil: at the top left, the inventory
death in 1882 were other photographers, such as Luigi Borlinetto number of the Photothek, at the top right the signature (»Malerei
and then for instance Anderson and Alinari, able to carry out new Gotik,« Painting Gothic), and at the bottom right the digital repro-
campaigns, who at that point could make use of technological duction number. For conservation reasons this type of historical
advances in the orthochromatic process. The Naya company, based photograph is no longer marked with the stamp of the Photothek,
in Venice,11 put photographic prints of the negatives of 1863–1865 whereas it can be seen on the card mounts of the smaller format
on the market even after the death of Carlo Naya. The positives of photographs. On the card mounts of the second set of 6 photo-
the Photothek measure around 18 x 24 cm, so they can be dated graphs (fig. 3) we read, in addition to the inventory number and
to after 1882: in fact the Naya catalogues from 1864 to 1882 only the digital reproduction number, the following inscriptions: at the
offer positives of this campaign in the »Grand Format« (35 x 27 cm). bottom centre »CAPPELLA DI GIOTTO IN PADOVA/FOTOGRAFIE
The »Plaque Format« (18 x 24 cm) appears for the first time in the TRATTE DAGLI ORIGINALI DA C. NAYA,« at the bottom left »Ripro-
catalogue of 1889.12 This smaller format, according to Sara Filippin, duzione riservata,« and at the bottom right »Venezia Ottobre 1863.«
derives from reduced format duplicates of the original glass nega- At the bottom centre we also see (at least on the original) the dry
tives. The commercial interest in a new and cheaper edition of the stamp »Naya/fotografo.«
campaign on Giotto in Padua can be traced back to the restoration The card mounts of the two series correspond in their measure-
of the Scrovegni chapel which took place between 1881 and 1897. ments to the indications given for the »Grand Format« in the Naya
The dissemination of these photographs – and therefore their rele- catalogues (approximately 48 x 40 cm). The positives dated 1865
vance – went beyond their double use as documents for art histori- measure approximately 32 x 27 cm, those dated 1863 measure
ans and souvenirs for tourists. Around the mid-19th century figures approximately 27.5 x 25.5 cm. In both cases the photographs are
such as Pietro Selvatico13 and John Ruskin proclaimed the cycle of smaller than the standard dimensions indicated in the catalogues
Paduan frescos to be one of the most important works of art in (35 x 27), having been cut primarily on the sides. The positives
Italian and even European painting. Naya‘s photographs reproduc- dated 1863 were cut on all sides in an even more substantial way,
ing Giotto‘s scenes were collectors‘ items, but also a surface onto and therefore the ornamental bands that frame Giotto‘s scenes
which to project reflections of one‘s identity, as in Marcel Proust‘s of the life of Christ and Mary are missing. The card mounts are
»In Search of Lost Time.«14 rather dirty and many have damaged edges. The albumen prints
The photographs shown so far must have been acquired loose are heavily faded and yellowed, however many of them still show
and mounted onto cardboard only later, in the Photothek. The Naya traces of the original gold toning in the central area of the positive, a
company‘s catalogues inform us that photographs could also be sign of the high qualitative and therefore commercial level of these
purchased already mounted: two sets of this type, in the larger for- photographs.
mat on ivory coloured card mount, were acquired by the Florentine We know the photographs were taken in 1863–1865, but when
Photothek in 2010 and 2011. do our photographic prints and relative card mounts date back to?
On the card mounts of the first set, comprised of 19 photographs These latter, according to a paper restorer we consulted, can be
(fig. 2), there are some pre-printed inscriptions: at the bottom dated only around the end of the 19th century or later, as they are

825
The Artefact and its Representations/Das Kunstwerk und seine Repräsentationen 11

Let us return to the small format photographs and the part of their
biography that occurred within the archive. In comparison to those
traditionally used in the Photothek, their card mounts have a slightly
different colour and are slightly larger (34.2 x 25.4 cm as opposed
to 34 x 24 cm, see fig. 1). To explain this difference we must take
the materiality of our photographic objects seriously and, literally,
take them in hand and turn them around: we would see that on
the back of the card mounts there is a stamp »Kunsthistorischer
Apparat/Universität Leipzig.« The inventory book confirms that
the photographs were obtained by the Florentine Institute through
an exchange (»Tausch«) with the University of Leipzig and were
inventoried on 7 July 1938. At that time the head of the Photothek,
Robert Oertel, was engaged in an impressive study on Giotto (to
which he dedicated his Habilitation) and specifically on the Paduan
cycle.20 The photographs therefore had direct relevance for his
research.21 Oertel completed a part of his studies at the University of
Leipzig – where a series of very important figures for the assertion
of photography as an instrument of art history also were teaching,
such as Anton Springer, or even for the history of the Florentine
Institute, such as August Schmarsow, the main initiator of its foun-
dation in 1897 or Heinrich Brockhaus, the first director.22 A small
Fig. 3 Carlo Naya, Christ before Caiaphas, from the fresco cycle set of photographs that were long ignored because »you can‘t see
by Giotto in the Scrovegni chapel in Padua. Albumen print, anything« started to wield its epistemological potential.23 A stamp
photograph taken in 1863. Mounting board: 47.5 x 40.4 cm; on the back of a card mount unravelled an entire chain of relations
photograph: 26.3 x 25.9 cm that had been partly forgotten.24 The photographs thus also re-
present a material trace of the close ties between the art history
department at the University of Leipzig and the Kunsthistorisches
the result of a semi chemical wood-pulping process that was cer- Institut in Florenz, and they are therefore documents for the history
tainly not yet widespread in 1863–1865.16 Let us look at the photo- of our discipline.
graphs with the date 1863 marked on the card mount: on the sur- »A photograph is always invisible: it is not it that we see.«25 Can
face of the positives we only see the signature of the photographer we subscribe to this well-known assertion of Roland Barthes when
»C. Naya« (probably traced on the corresponding negative), while faced with a photograph from our Naya series? I don’t think so. In
the set with the date 1865 next to the signature always also shows the previous remarks we soon abandoned the observation of the
the Naya catalogue number (on the original of fig. 2 you would see pure visual content of the photographs, of their indexicality, in
that number 7 has been added). According to Sara Filippin negati- order to consider them as material objects in a spatial and tem-
ves were only numbered after the campaign had finished in October poral dimension, in social and cultural contexts. We have primarily
1865:17 unnumbered photographic prints could therefore date back considered the materiality of photographs as products of a particu-
to the interim period between 1863 and 1865. These positives in lar photographic technique, with particular chemical and physical
fact represent the scenes of the life of Christ which were photo- properties, printed with a particular process on a particular type of
graphed first, in 1863.18 If this reconstruction is correct, old photo- paper, with particular dimensions and so on. And we have consider-
graphic prints dating back to 1863–1865 would have been found ed the materiality of their form of presentation, the card mounts with
in the Naya studio, which would have then been mounted onto their stamps and inscriptions and the boxes and folders in which
cardboards and traded only at the end of the 19th century. However they are contained. We have posed questions – some of them still
within the Naya company it must have been known that the pho- unanswered – about the processes linked to their production, that
tographs of the scenes of the life of Christ dated back to the first is commission, execution, diffusion, use, conservation, disposal and
part of the campaign in 1863, so this date was stated on the card recycling. We have approached them considering their »multivalent
mount. The card mounts also bear other traces of the »commercial« temporality,« since »records and record series can simultaneously
biography of our photographs: the numbers in pencil to the side of harbour multiple, juxtaposed temporal contexts,« as stated by Brien
the positives, corresponding to the catalogue numbers, served for Brothman.26 Their biography, or better the succession of biographies
the correct mounting of the series. The pencil marks at the sides of only ends temporarily with this contribution, in anticipation of new
the lower edge of the photographs were clearly used to position the and further transformations.
positives when they were glued to the card mount. The material turn in studies on photography has been influenced
The card mounts of the two sets are very similar but not iden- by a series of research trends, from the material culture in anthro-
tical (and one similar set which is found in the Zentralinstitut für pology to the so-called »return to things« of which Bruno Latour was
Kunstgeschichte in Munich still has some differences).19 The differ- a key player, up until the agency of objects (Alfred Gell) and the
ence between the inscriptions »FOTOGRAFIE [...] DA C. NAYA« material hermeneutics (Don Ihde). The photographs have become
[photographs ... by C. Naya] (1863 set) and »FOTOGRAFIE [...] not only representations of works of art, but things themselves:
DI C. NAYA« [photographs ... of C. Naya] (1865 set) is inter- they have become autonomous research objects. Thus research can
esting: the »originals« here would not be the frescos by Giotto, but return to the photo archives as in the laboratories of art history (and
the negatives of Naya (»di [of] Carlo Naya«), an approach that would many other disciplines), in which traditional work with photographs
reflect not only the high value assigned to the negatives, but also a as representations is also supported (or should also be supported)
highly specific idea about the relationship between original, repre- by work on the photographs as new originals. On the other hand,
sentation and reproduction. Elizabeth Edwards cautions us about limiting ourselves to consi-

826
11 The Artefact and its Representations/Das Kunstwerk und seine Repräsentationen

dering photographs and photo archives only as simple objects of space of creative intensity, of ingenuity, of latent energy, of rich his-
research, as »a passive ›resource‹ activated not through their own torical force.«27 Interacting and »talking with« our research objects,
force, but through that of the historian.« Edwards invites us to recon- this is the methodological suggestion of Ewa Domanska.28 Let us
sider photographs and their archives »as actively ›resourceful‹ – a talk with photographs.

Notes
1 Heinrich Dilly: Lichtbildprojektion – Prothese der Kunstbetrachtung. In: were reproduced in giant photomurals shown in the Metropolitan Museum in New
Kunstwissenschaft und Kunstvermittlung. Ed. by Irene Below. Gießen 1975, York during the exhibition Illuminations of Fifty Great Paintings. I am grateful to
pp. 153–172, esp. 153. Olivier Lugon for this information.
2 The most recent titles, to which we refer also for the previous bibliography, are: 15 These photographs, including the card mounts and relative inscriptions, correspond
Fotografie als Instrument und Medium der Kunstgeschichte (= I Mandorli, 9). Ed. by to the examples found by Sara Filippin in the Biblioteca Civica di Padova; Filippin
Costanza Caraffa. Munich/Berlin 2009. – Art and the Early Photographic Album. 2009a (note 10), p. 25.
Ed. by Stephen Bann. New Haven 2011. – Photo Archives and the Photographic 16 I would like to thank Barbara Cattaneo for this information.
Memory of Art History (= I Mandorli, 14). Ed. by Costanza Caraffa. Munich/Berlin 17 Filippin 2009a (note 10), p. 24.
2011. 18 Filippin 2009a (note 10), p. 18.
3 Roland Barthes: Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography. Transl. by Richard 19 Collocation D-Gi 627/65. I would like to thank Ralf Peters for informations on the
Howard. New York 1982, p. 77. photographs in Munich.
4 The seminal publication is Photographs Objects Histories. On the Materiality of 20 Robert Oertel: Wandmalerei und Zeichnung in Italien: die Anfänge der
Images. Ed. by Elizabeth Edwards/Janice Hart. London/New York 2004. Entwurfszeichnung und ihre monumentalen Vorstufen. In: Mitteilungen des
5 Terry Cook: From Information to Knowledge: An Intellectual Paradigm for Archives. Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 5, 1937/40 [1940], pp. 217–314. – Robert
In: Archivaria, 19, 1984–1985, pp. 28–49. – Archives, Records, and Power. Ed. by Oertel: Studien zu Giottos nachpaduanischem Stil. Habilitationsschrift Freiburg
Terry Cook/Joan M. Schwartz. Monographic issue of Archival Science: 1948.
International Journal on Recorded Information, 2, 2002, n. 1–2, 3–4. – Joan M. 21 Hans W. Hubert: Das Kunsthistorische Institut in Florenz: von der Gründung bis zum
Schwartz: »Records of Simple Truth and Precision:« Photography, Archives, and hundertjährigen Jubiläum (1897–1997). Florence 1997, pp. 63–64. – Christian Adolf
the Illusion of Control. In: Archivaria, 50, 2000, pp. 1–40. For other publications by Isermeyer: Robert Oertel, 1907–1981 (Nachruf). In: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte,
Edwards, Cook and Schwartz see the bibliography in Caraffa 2011 (note 2). 45, 1982, n. 4, pp. 437–440.
6 See the section of these proceedings dedicated to the question of original. On 22 Thomas Topfstedt/Frank Zöllner: Kunstgeschichte. In: Ulrich von Hehl/Uwe John/
the documentary question see the volume in preparation Documenting the World: Manfred Rudersdorf: Geschichte der Universität Leipzig 1409–2009. Leipzig 2009,
Photographic Media and the Scientific Record. Ed. by Greg Mitman/Kelley Wilder. vol. 4.1, pp. 218–234, esp. 218–221 on Springer, Schmarsow and Brockhaus.
Chicago 2013. 23 Costanza Caraffa: From »photo libraries« to »photo archives«. On the
7 On the same group of photographs see also Costanza Caraffa: Cimelia epistemological potential of art-historical photo collections. In: Photo Archives and
Photographica. Zum Umgang mit historischen Fotografien im Archiv. In: Rundbrief the Photographic Memory of Art History (= I Mandorli, 14). Ed. by Costanza Caraffa.
Fotografie 74, 2012, pp. 8–13. Munich/Berlin 2011, pp. 11–44.
8 Daniel Arasse: Can’t see anything. Princeton/NJ 2001. 24 For this reason when historical photographs are digitalized we consider not only
9 Dorothea Peters: Fotografie als »Technisches Hülfsmittel« der Kunstwissenschaft. the image but the entire card mount and if necessary the back too. On the specific
Wilhelm Bode und die Photographische Kunstanstalt Adolphe Braun. In: Jahrbuch issues raised by the digitization and cataloguing of historical photographs see
der Berliner Museen, 44, 2002, pp. 167–206, esp. 172–174. Caraffa 2012 (note 7). A seminal study is Joan M. Schwartz: Coming to Terms with
10 Sara Filippin: Carlo Naya e gli affreschi di Giotto a Padova. La prima campagna Photographs: Descriptive Standards, Linguistic »Othering« and the Margins of
fotografica tra mercato e conservazione. In: AFT, 25, 2009, n. 50, pp. 18–30. – Archivy. In: Archivaria, 54, 2002, pp. 142–171.
Sara Filippin: Padova, gli Scrovegni e Carlo Naya. In: Padova e il suo territorio, 24, 25 Barthes 1982 (note 3), p. 6.
2009, n. 141, pp. 28–31. 26 Brien Brothman: Archives, Life Cycles, and Death Wishes: A Helical Model of
11 Italo Zannier: Venezia, Archivio Naya. Venice 1981. Record Formation. In: Archivaria, 61, 2006, pp. 235–269, esp. 242.
12 Catalogue général des photographies publiées par C. Naya. Venice 1864, 1882 and 27 Elizabeth Edwards: Photographs: Material Form and the Dynamic Archive. In: Photo
1889 respectively. – Filippin 2009a (note 10), p. 26. Archives and the Photographic Memory of Art History (= I Mandorli, 14). Ed. by
13 Paolo Costantini: Pietro Selvatico: fotografia e cultura artistica alla metà Costanza Caraffa. München/Berlin 2011, pp. 47–56, quotes from p. 47.
dell’Ottocento. In: Fotologia, 4, 1985, pp. 54–66. 28 Ewa Domanska: The Material Presence of the Past. In: History and Theory, 45,
14 Dana MacFarlane: Arresting strangeness: Walter Benjamin‘s Proust and Carlo 2006, 3, pp. 337–348, esp. 348 were she refers to the study by Nurit Bird-David:
Naya‘s Giotto. In: History of Photography, 31, 2007, n. 2, pp. 135–150. – Mary Animism revisited: On personhood, environment and relational epistemology. In:
Bergstein: Italian Painting in Proust’s Imaginary Archive. In: Photo Archives and the Current Anthropology, 40, 1999, S. 67–91.
Photographic Memory of Art History (= I Mandorli, 14). Ed. by Costanza Caraffa.
Munich/Berlin 2011, pp. 359–368. Tiziana Serena is working on the Naya photo Photo credits
campaign in the context of Italian unification and the formation of national identity. Florence, Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, Photothek:
The aura of the Paduan fresco cycle was still radiating in 1956, when some motifs 1 (inv.no. 119405), 2 (inv.no. 600480), 3 (inv.no. 605596).

827

Вам также может понравиться