Gate of the Agora, Athens
D. Constantin
Greek
1860-69
An albumen silver print from a glass negative that records the Gate of the Agora in Athens, made to document and monumentalize the ruins of ancient Greece.
What hits you is the strict vertical rhythm of battered Doric columns filling the frame, their fluted shafts and eroded capitals rendered in crisp tonal contrasts so the stone reads like a solitary, monumental sculpture against a pale sky.
As an example of early archaeological photography, this work used the camera to preserve and circulate classical architecture, shaping scholarly study and popular taste in the nineteenth-century recovery of antiquity.
Medium
Albumen silver print from a glass negative
Dimensions
14 11/16 × 10 7/16" (37.3 × 26.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of Lois and Bruce Zenkel
Accession
56.1982
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
