Images of Italy
2/23–9/3/2023

For generations, people have been dreaming of the Mediterranean south. A lively tourist trade developed in the nineteenth century when railroads made the country more accessible.. For travellers, photographs of the main places of attraction became popular souvenirs even before the invention of the picture postcard and were distributed internationally by mail order. With photographic reproductions of artworks, the medium also opened up new possibilities for the discipline of art history, which was firmly establishing itself in those years. In the 1850s, Johann David Passavant, then director of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, acquired photographs for the museum’s collection. From these prints, both the art-interested public and students of the affiliated art academy were able to get an idea of southern Europe and its artistic and natural treasures. This brought distant countries closer while, simultaneously, the motifs in circulation determined what was considered worth seeing. To this day, the sceneries captured in photographs at that time continue to have an impact.

Curator: Dr Kristina Lemke (Head of Photography, Städel Museum)

Picture: Giorgio Sommer, Sorrento: View of the city from the west (Detail), ca. 1880–1890, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main; Enrico Van Lint, Pisa: The Leaning Tower (Detail), ca. 1855, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main