Round Way, from Souvenirs d’Italie: Expédition de Rome 1859

Curator: What a stark scene. There's such a linear quality, a hard edge in a way that feels very definitive, doesn’t it? Editor: It does, it evokes labor and construction, certainly a social dimension is there. This lithograph from 1859, "Round Way, from Souvenirs d’Italie: Expédition de Rome", created by Auguste Raffet. The artist captures an almost cinematic image. It looks like a moment frozen in time from an ongoing monumental project, the siege. Curator: A siege depicted with what almost seems like disinterest, if it weren't for the raw physicality, it feels documentary. Editor: Precisely. Look at the men digging with picks, the regimented lines almost mimic the stark structures under construction, a scene that appears brutally objective and devoid of overt drama. How would you compare that objectivity to other period depictions? Curator: Typically we see far more romanticized portrayals of military expeditions. Here, though, it’s about mundane labor—the men seem almost mechanical. And how does that objectivity affect the viewer’s emotional engagement, do you think? Editor: It prompts reflection rather than sentimentality. You aren’t caught up in a hero narrative; it is just stark existence. Curator: In an almost modern, objective style, like straight photography. One feels implicated simply as an observer, devoid of celebratory flourishes that are so common. Editor: Well, exactly. It challenges you to interpret, analyze the raw imagery, in essence inviting you to think historically, to consider the human endeavor and the impact. What, for instance, must it have felt like to have lived through such times. Curator: A vital piece, in its understated way. Raffet challenges the very notion of how events become history—captured without sensationalism, offering perhaps the truest souvenir d’Italie.