Restanten van het Casa di Marco Olconio in Pompeï c. 1860 - 1900

Roberto Rive made this albumen print titled 'Restanten van het Casa di Marco Olconio in Pompeï' sometime between 1860 and 1889. Rive, an Italian photographer, captured this image during a time of renewed fascination with antiquity, as archaeological discoveries like Pompeii offered Europeans a direct connection to the past. The photograph presents the skeletal remains of a once-grand house. Imagine the lives that unfolded here, interrupted by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Consider the enslaved peoples who would have maintained the home, their stories largely erased from the historical record. Photography in the 19th century served as a tool for documentation, but it also romanticized ruins, turning them into picturesque scenes for consumption. Rive’s composition frames the remnants of Pompeii as both a scientific record and a haunting reminder of time’s passage. It asks us to reflect on the layers of history and the human stories buried beneath the ash.