Plaster Cast of Body, Pompeii
1880
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 27 × 37.5 cm (10 11/16 × 14 13/16 in.); Mount: 39.9 × 50.3 cm (15 3/4 × 19 13/16 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
210676
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Giorgio Sommer was one of the most successful and well-known photographers of southern Italy in the nineteenth century, and his images served archaeologists and tourists alike. He was commissioned by Giuseppe Fiorelli, the first archaeologist to bring scientific method to the excavations at Pompeii. Under Fiorelli, archaeological evidence was to be documented at the site of its discovery, a dramatic shift from the antiquarian emphasis on aesthetics toward an anthropological appreciation of socia...
About the Artist
Giorgio Sommer · 1834–1914
Giorgio Sommer, born Georg Sommer on September 2, 1834, in Frankfurt am Main within the German Confederation, emerged as one of 19th-century Europe's most prolific photographers. After studying business in his hometown, where his family fortune was reportedly lost to his father's gambling, Sommer apprenticed as a photographer before launching his professional career in Switzerland, producing relie...