Who created "[South Portal, Chartres Cathedral]"?

[South Portal, Chartres Cathedral] was created by Charles Marville in 1854.

What medium is "[South Portal, Chartres Cathedral]"?

[South Portal, Chartres Cathedral] is Salted paper print from paper negative.

Is "[South Portal, Chartres Cathedral]" in the public domain?

Yes, [South Portal, Chartres Cathedral] is in the public domain and available for free download under CC0 license.

[South Portal, Chartres Cathedral]

Charles Marville

1854

Medium

Salted paper print from paper negative

Dimensions

21.5 x 15.5 cm (8 7/16 x 6 1/8 in.)

Classification

Photographs

Department

Photographs

Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Credit

Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph Duke Gift and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2000

Accession Number

2000.292

Tags

ArchitectureCathedrals

Art Historical Context

Step into the timeless grandeur of Chartres Cathedral through Charles Marville's *South Portal, Chartres Cathedral (1854), a paper print that freezes one of France's most iconic Gothic masterpieces. Marville, a pioneering French photographer famed for documenting Paris's transformation under Napoleon III, turned his lens to this 13th-century marvel during photography's infancy. The south portal, adorned with intricate stone sculptures depicting biblical scenes and saints, exemplifies High Gothic architecture's soaring ambition and narrative depth. Created via the calotype process—using a pape...

About the Artist

Charles Marville · 1813–1879

**Charles Marville**, born Charles François Bossu on July 17, 1813, in Paris, adopted his professional pseudonym around 1832 to avoid the stigma of "bossu," meaning hunchback in French. Trained as a painter, engraver, and illustrator, he spent nearly two decades producing woodblock illustrations for books and magazines before embracing photography around 1850. His transition coincided with the med...

[South Portal, Chartres Cathedral]

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