Tempio della Concordia
1848–52
Medium
Albumen print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 8 11/16 × 11 5/16 in. (22 × 28.7 cm) Sheet: 12 1/8 × 18 1/2 in. (30.8 × 47 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.799 (22)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Eugène Constant's *Tempio della Concordia* (1848–52) captures the majestic ruins of the Temple of Concord, one of the best-preserved ancient Greek temples in the world, located in the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento, Sicily Built around 440–430 BCE in the Doric style, this peripteral temple with its towering columns stood as a testament to classical antiquity when Constant photographed it during the mid-19th century. His image freezes the timeless interplay of light and shadow on weathered stone, evoking the grandeur of a civilization long past. As an albumen print from a glass negative,...
About the Artist
Eugène Constant · 1848–1855
Eugène Constant (before 1820 – after 1860) was a French painter who became one of the pioneering photographers of the 19th century, capturing the grandeur of Italy's ancient monuments with unprecedented clarity.) Trained as a painter in Paris during the early 1840s, where he maintained a studio at 31 rue du Marché-Saint-Honoré, Constant exhibited interior views of Venice's Basilica of San Marco an...