Fountains Abbey. Interior of Chapter House
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Image: 28.5 x 23.6 cm (11 1/4 x 9 5/16 in.) Mount: 43.9 x 30 cm (17 5/16 x 11 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1952
Accession Number
52.640 (6)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the evocative ruins of Fountains Abbey's Chapter House through this stunning 1850s albumen silver print by photographers Joseph Cundall and Henry Delamotte.uring the interior of this once-grand Cistercian monastery in Yorkshire, England—one of the largest and best-preserved medieval monastic sites in the country—the image measures 28.5 x 23.6 cm and crumbling Gothic arches and vaulted ceilings bathed in soft, diffused light. Faint figures of men add a human scale, hinting at visitors or explorers amid the decay. Created during photography's formative years, this work exemplifies the...