Fratelli Alinari (19th century): View of the city from the banks of the Arno over the Ponti Vecchio bridge, with Santa Trinita in the background, Florence, c. 1890, albumen paper print

Technique: albumen paper print, mounted on Cardboard

Inscription: Lower middle signed in the printing plate: "(Ed. ne Alinari)". Lower middle inscribed in the printing plate: "Firenze - Veduta dei Lungarni coi Ponti Vecchio, S. Trinita, Carraia e di Ferro alle Cascine.". Lower middle numbered in the printing plate: "P.e I.n N.o 3118.".

Date: c. 1890

Description: The image is extremely sharp and detailed. The cables stretching across the Arno at the front of the picture can be clearly recognised. 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 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, river, Arno, river bank, bridge, Ponte Vecchio, segmental arch bridge, old bridge, 19th century, Historicism, Cities, Italy,

Size: Cardboard: 27,8 cm x 33,6 cm (10,9 x 13,2 in), Depiction: 18,8 cm x 24,6 cm (7,4 x 9,7 in)

Good condition. Slightly discoloured due to age. With scattered scratches on the surface. Slightly faded in places along the margins. Card with tear to sheet margin centre right.

27.8 x 33.6 cm