Erechtheion, Athens (62. Athènes. 1842. T. de Minerve Poliade.)
Medium
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
Image: 3 11/16 × 9 1/2 in. (9.4 × 24.1 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Philippe de Montebello Fund, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Moran Gift, in memory of Louise Chisholm Moran, Joyce F. Menschel and Annette de la Renta Gifts, and funds from various donors, 2016 (2016.93)
Accession Number
2016.93
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking daguerreotype captures the Erechtheion, an ancient Greek temple on Athens’s Acropolis, as it appeared in 1842. Created by French photographer and architectural historian Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, the image presents the temple’s elegant Ionic columns and the famed Porch of the Caryatids in remarkable detail. The elongated format suggests an early panoramic approach, allowing viewers to appreciate the structure’s graceful proportions amid surrounding ruins. The Erechtheion, built between 421 and 406 BCE, housed shrines to Athena and Poseidon and was long associated with...
About the Artist
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey · 1804–1892
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804–1892), born in Langres, France, as the sole surviving child of Claude Joseph Girault and Barbe Philiberte Rosine Piétrequin, inherited the lordships of Genevrières and Prangey, adopting his full surname in 1825. After studies at Langres college and in Paris, where he earned baccalauréats in letters (1826) and law (1828), he pursued artistic training under ...