The exhibition, organised in collaboration with Fratelli Alinari Fondazione per la Storia della Fotografia, will feature more than 110 photographs drawn from the extensive archives of Fratelli Alinari, the renowned photographic studio based in Florence that celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2002.
The exhibition includes both vintage prints and original glass-plate negatives, as well as a number of modern prints from the original plates. The photographs vividly trace the country’s transition from a rural economy to an industrialised nation, capturing a pivotal era in Italian history. They bear witness to the radical changes in Italian culture and society taking place at this time - changes which were noted by the Futurist painters in their first manifesto of 1910: “In the eyes of other countries Italy is still a land of the dead, a vast Pompeii, white with sepulchres. But Italy is being reborn. Its political resurgence will be followed by a cultural resurgence. In the land inhabited by the illiterate peasant, schools will be set up; in the land where doing nothing in the sun was the only available profession, millions of machines are already roaring.”
Moving from the Tuscan townscapes with which the Alinari made their name, these fascinating photographs document changes in fashion and working practices as well as the transformation of the urban environment through the introduction of modern means of transportation and electric lighting.
But these images are not simply interesting from the point of view of social history - they also reveal the development of a specifically photographic aesthetic, in which unexpected angles and detailed views provide a means of reinterpreting the country’s sculpture and architectural landmarks. The earliest photograph in the exhibition, for instance, shows a conventional, ‘painterly’ panoramic view of Florence from Monte di S. Miniato (1852), which contrasts with the more experimental, dizzying perspectives found in a picture of the skylight of the staircase in the Villa Farnese, Caprarola, taken from below in 1932.
Leopoldo Alinari was born in Florence in 1832 and as a young man was an apprentice engraver in the well-known print shop of Giuseppe Bardi, who helped him set up a small photographic laboratory in 1852. In 1854 Leopoldo and his brothers Giuseppe, who was knowledgeable about chemistry and sensitive emulsions, and Romualdo, who was in charge of administration, founded the partnership Fratelli Alinari and later that year they exhibited eight photographs in a show at the Technical Institute in Florence. The following year they gained international recognition after showing their work in Paris.
At that time photography was still in its infancy, having been developed during the previous decades by four pioneers: two Frenchmen, the physicist Niepce and the painter Daguerre; and two Englishmen, the scientists William Henry Fox Talbot and Sir John Herschel. The superior quality of Leopoldo Alinari’s photographs, distinguished by their creativity and technical innovation, was acknowledged in 1856, when he was barely 24 years old, by the important French periodical La Lumière.
French photographers had already begun to document the major monuments of France from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, with occasional references to the Renaissance, with the aim of establishing a national identity and sense of history. The Alinari were impressed by this approach and sought to do the same for Italy, which was a more complex undertaking given that it was not until 1861 that unification of the Italian states took place. However, with Florence being one of the key cities of the Grand Tour, it was a perfect place to start.
The Alinari revolutionised the way that ancient monuments were photographed and were the first to document works in museums photographically. From the very beginning Leopoldo Alinari’s skill was evident. His pictures were always perfectly centred, on an axis, or with a 45 degree perspective at the corner of a building to show both façade and side. There are several remarkable views of familiar Florentine landmarks as well as others in Siena and Todi dating from the 1850s. Nearly fifty years later, a photograph of a man climbing the stairs of the tower of Palazzo Vecchio with the cathedral in the background (above left) shows that the Alinari retained their unique eye for unusual angles.
An original carbon print of the portrait studio of the Alinari firm taken around 1900 gives a fascinating glimpse into the luxury of their props and the quality of their clients.
In fact, they became sophisticated portrait photographers of the politicians of Florence, the first capital of united Italy, and of the royal family. Sporting activities were also recorded and among the outstanding examples are a scene with men rowing on the Tiber in Rome, circa 1890 (above right); a portrait of two young men wearing boaters and riding a tandem taken in 1895; Marion Walsh with her horse and dog, circa 1890; a pair of fencers in training, 1893; and a remarkable picture of the aeronaut Julhes flying a hot-air balloon directly above a factory chimney in Florence in March 1884 (above).
Among the lively and atmospheric street scenes is one of the elegant shopping street Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, circa 1890, contrasting with one of Via Gran Madre di Dio in Genoa, circa 1895, with its lines of washing hanging between the houses and blowing merrily in the wind and a pair of heavily laden mules in the street below. There is a wonderful series of street scenes taken in Naples around 1895 depicting street urchins, men and boys playing and women working and washing. An original print of the splendid ‘Anglo-American Pharmacy’, Roberts, taken in Florence in 1907, illustrates how the city has always welcomed foreigners.
Working life is also recorded: for example, there are several pictures of a tobacco factory in Florence, including one taken in 1901 showing three girls working at a bench. A later example shows women seated in rows in the canteen of the Perugina chocolate factory in Perugia in 1928.
Leopoldo Alinari died in 1865 when only 33 and, after the death of his uncles in 1890, Leopoldo’s son Vittorio took charge of the firm at the age of 31. He pioneered art publishing using the Alinari photographs to produce books that became the basis for modern art history. In 1920 Vittorio ceded the Alinari firm to a group of Florentine entrepreneurs and it played a leading role in disseminating pictures of Roman art and in documenting the buildings of the Fascist regime. There are several examples of these photographs in the exhibition taken in Rome and Florence. One from 1933 shows a portion of the Stadio dei Marmi, Foro Mussolini, in Rome, the heroic marble statues in a semi-circle perfectly exemplifying Fascist ideals (see page 59). Finally there are two pictures of the newly-built railway station in Florence taken in 1936, indicating that Italy was a truly modern state.
Open to the public from Wednesday 23 June to Sunday 19 September 2004 at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 39a Canonbury Square, London N1 2AN. Tel. 020 7704 9522, Fax. 020 7704 9531