Arco di Tito
1848–52
Medium
Album print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 6 7/16 × 8 7/16 in. (16.4 × 21.5 cm) Sheet: 12 1/8 × 18 1/2 in. (30.8 × 47 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.799 (26)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into ancient Rome through Eugène Constant's *Arco di Tito* (1848–52), an exquisite album print from a glass negative that captures the iconic Arch of Titus. This triumphal arch, erected in 81 CE by Emperor Domitian, majestically along the Via Sacra near the Roman Forum, commemorating Titus's victory in the sack of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Constant, a pioneering French photographer active in Italy during the mid-19th century, framed the monument's intricate reliefs—depicting the spoils of the Temple in Jerusalem, including the menorah—showcasing its enduring grandeur amid Rome's bustling urban ...
About the Artist
Eugène Constant · 1848–1855
Eugène Constant (before 1820 – after 1860) was a French painter who became one of the pioneering photographers of the 19th century, capturing the grandeur of Italy's ancient monuments with unprecedented clarity.) Trained as a painter in Paris during the early 1840s, where he maintained a studio at 31 rue du Marché-Saint-Honoré, Constant exhibited interior views of Venice's Basilica of San Marco an...