Exterieur van het Palazzo Farnese te Rome, Italië 1851 - 1900

Ludovico Tuminello captured the Exterior of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome with a photograph sometime in the late 19th century. The Palazzo Farnese, a symbol of Renaissance Rome, stands here as a testament to the enduring power of the aristocracy. Tuminello, working in the relatively new medium of photography, freezes this moment for posterity. Italy in this era was on the cusp of immense social change as it moved towards unification. What role did institutions play in shaping national identity at this time? Consider how photography, as an emerging medium, was being used both to document and to idealize the past. Did it serve to reinforce existing power structures, or did it offer new ways of seeing and understanding the world? To fully understand this image, we might delve into architectural history, photography’s emergence, and the social history of Rome. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.