Image of Gallery in South Kensington
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Catacomb of Praetextatus - Painted Vault of Chapel, c. A.D. 150

Photograph
1866-1868 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Photograph of a painted vault of a chapel, in the Catacomb of Praetextatus, Rome. Taken with a magnesium flash.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleCatacomb of Praetextatus - Painted Vault of Chapel, c. A.D. 150 (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
mounted albumen print
Brief description
Photograph by Charles Smeaton of a chapel in the Catacomb of Praetextatus, Rome, from a set commissioned by John Henry Parker, 1864-1870
Physical description
Photograph of a painted vault of a chapel, in the Catacomb of Praetextatus, Rome. Taken with a magnesium flash.
Dimensions
  • Mount height: 26.8cm
  • Mount width: 33.2cm
Object history
This object is part of a series of over 3,300 photographs documenting the principal monuments, artworks and artefacts of Rome from the classical age to the 1600s. The photographs were taken between 1864 and 1879 under the direction of John Henry Parker, the founder of the British and American Archaeological Society of Rome, and many were published in his Archaeology of Rome (1874-1879). Parker employed local photographers including Adriano De Bonis, Filippo Spina, Carlo Baldassare Simelli, Francesco Sidoli, Filippo Lais and Giovanni Battista Colamedici, as well as a Canadian, Charles Smeaton. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds a large collection of the photographs taken before 1870.
Production
photograph taken with magnesium light (an early form of flash created by burning magnesium wire)
Subjects depicted
Association
Bibliographic reference
Historical photographs : A catalogue of three thousand three hundred photographs of antiquities in Rome and Italy, with dates, historical or approximative, and a general index prepared under the direction of John Henry Parker, London, 1879
Other number
615 - John Henry Parker catalogue number
Collection
Accession number
62005

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Record createdJuly 1, 2009
Record URL
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