Drômos et Philônes, Grand Temple d'Isis à Pilônes; Nubie, plate 72 from the album "Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie" (1852)
1849/51, printed 1852
Medium
Salted paper print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 17.3 × 22.3 cm (6 13/16 × 8 13/16 in.); Album page: 30 × 42.9 cm (11 13/16 × 16 15/16 in.)
Classification
salted paper print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
144284
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, photographer and writer Maxime Du Camp ventured into Egypt and Nubia, capturing some of the earliest photographic records of ancient wonders. This salted paper print, titled *Drômos et Philnes, Grand Temple dis à Pilônes; Nubie*, depicts the grand dromos (processional avenue and towering pylons of the Temple of Isis at Philae a sacred Nubian site dedicated to the goddess of magic and motherhood. Taken during Du Camp's 1849–51 expedition alongside Gustave Flaubert, it forms plate 72 of his landmark album *Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie* (1852), blending travelogue an...
About the Artist
Maxime Du Camp · 1822–present
Maxime Du Camp (1822–1894) was a pioneering French photographer and writer whose adventurous spirit and technical innovation bridged literature and visual art during the mid-19th century. Born in Paris on February 8, 1822, to a prosperous family—his father a successful surgeon—Du Camp received a solid bourgeois education at the Collège Bourbon (now Lycée Condorcet), where he cultivated interests i...