Galerij in het Camposanto te Pisa, Italië 1864 - 1881

Giacomo Brogi made this photograph of a gallery in the Camposanto in Pisa, Italy, at an unknown date. Consider the nineteenth-century appetite for images of historical sites, particularly in Italy. Here we see a convergence of interests: the artistic, the historical, and the archaeological. The Camposanto itself, a monumental cemetery, represents centuries of Pisan history and artistic endeavor. Brogi’s photograph flattens the space of the gallery, highlighting the long lines of columns and the repetitive rhythm of the architecture. In its time, photographs like this one served multiple roles. They documented historical sites for scholarly purposes, but they were also tourist souvenirs, mementos of cultural pilgrimages. Brogi ran a commercial studio in Florence that catered to wealthy Europeans seeking to capture their travels through photographs. Photographs such as this one offer rich ground for historical inquiry. By examining them, and by consulting archives and period publications, we can better understand the cultural values and social practices of past eras.