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Hutzel (Max) Photographs of Art and Architecture in Italy
86.P.8  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Other Finding Aid
  • Administrative Information
  • Separated Material
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Foto arte minore: Max Hutzel photographs of art and architecture in Italy
    Date (inclusive): 1960-1990
    Number: 86.P.8
    Creator/Collector: Hutzel, Max
    Physical Description: 915 boxes (circa 67,275 black-and-white photographic prints, circa 86,400 black-and-white negatives)
    Repository:
    The Getty Research Institute
    Special Collections
    1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
    Los Angeles 90049-1688
    reference@getty.edu
    URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
    (310) 440-7390
    Abstract: This collection contains thorough photographic documentation by Max Hutzel of art and architecture in Italy ranging in date from Antiquity to late Baroque. Included are photographs of secular buildings, museum holdings, ancient ruins, and religious institutions covering a broad range of artistic forms and styles, including architecture, paintings, frescoes, sculpture, manuscripts, metalwork and other minor arts. The regions most heavily represented are: the Abruzzi, Lazio (including Rome), the Marches, and Umbria.
    Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record   for this collection. Click here for the access policy  .
    Language: Collection material is in English .

    Biographical / Historical

    German-born photographer and scholar Max Hutzel (1911-1988) photographed in Italy from the early 1960s until the late 1980s, resulting in a vast body of photographs that he referred to as "Foto arte minore." Over the years he amassed a collection of about one million negatives and sold his photographs to individual scholars for publication and to institutions such as the Biblioteca Herziana, the National Gallery in Washington, and the Kunsthistorische Institut in Florence. He used the revenue from these sales, in addition to some financial support he received from his brother in Germany, to continue his work until his death.
    Hutzel studied printmaking and graphics in Stuttgart. Impressed by Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus School, he developed a deep interest in photography and studied with Paul Wolff. After World War II, he settled in Italy and by the beginning of the 1960's, he had devoted himself to the photographic documentation of art and architecture. Applying techniques and aesthetic solutions he learned from the Bauhaus movement, Hutzel's approach went beyond the purely documentary. His photography represented his artistic interpretation of Italian art and his sense of being in a specific place. He compared himself to the European scholars and researchers who traveled through Italy drawing in their notebooks as they studied the history and archeological artifacts of the region.
    Hutzel comprehensively documented lesser known monuments, attempting to include everything that is connected with art historical development in Italy up to the 18th century: architecture, sculpture, wall painting, panel painting, museum objects and religious artifacts from the Etruscan and Roman civilizations and the early Medieval, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. In order to document architecture within its topographical context, he often photographed general and panoramic views of towns seen from afar, streets, and clusters of buildings. He also provided a glimpse of the social context by sometimes including residents, passersby, and vehicles.

    Other Finding Aid

    The Photo Archive Database also provides access to this collection. Connect to the Photo Archive Database. 

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Open for use by qualified researchers. For further information, consult the Guide to the Photo Archive and Database .

    Publication Rights

    Preferred Citation

    Foto arte minore: Max Hutzel photographs of art and architecture in Italy, 1960-1990. The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 86.P.8.
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa86p8

    Processing Information

    A preliminary box list was created by Martha Steele in 2008. In 2011 Laney McGlohon transformed the box list into an EAD finding aid and incorporated metadata from the GRI's Photo Archive Database, and in 2012 she added links to the digital collection. Andra Darlington completed the finding aid in 2012, adapting text by Tracey Schuster for the collection notes.

    Digital Collection

    The photographic prints and accompanying lists have been digitized and made available online. Click here to view all digital images  or click the links in the container list to see digital images of specific subjects.

    Separated Material

    A number of Hutzel photographs and approximately 800 photographs by Hutzel's assistant, Roberto Sigismondi, were removed from this collection and interfiled with the core collection of the repository's Photo Archive.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    Max Hutzel's "Foto arte minore" project comprises thorough photographic documentation of art historical development in Italy up to the 18th century, including objects of the Etruscans and the Romans, as well as early Medieval, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque monuments. Consonant with Hutzel's belief that throughout Italy there are minor artistic centers that deserve attention, sites depicted are frequently obscure and previously undocumented. Hutzel's work is typified by a feeling for place that goes beyond the purely documentary. The collection contains more than 67,000 black-and-white prints and approximately 86,400 black-and-white negatives. Because Hutzel carefully cropped his images for printing, the prints more accurately represent his style than the negatives.
    Included is thorough interior and exterior documentation of secular buildings, museum holdings, ancient ruins, and religious institutions covering a broad range of artistic forms and styles, including architecture, painting, frescoes, sculpture, manuscripts, metalwork and other minor arts, ranging in date from Antiquity to late Baroque. The regions most heavily represented are: the Abruzzi, Lazio (including Rome), the Marches, and Umbria. Additional photos cover sites in: Basilicata, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Guilia, Lombardy, Piedmont, Puglia, Sardinia, Tuscany, and Veneto.
    Also included are circa 825 photographs of medieval buildings and art in Campania, in the ancient region called "Campi Flegrei," made in 1990 by Roberto Sigismondi, Hutzel's long-time assistant (some 800 additional images from this campaign have been removed and interfiled in the Antiquities section of the Getty Research Institute's Photo Archive). Missing from this collection are many Hutzel photographs that were separated in the 1980s and 1990s and integrated into the core collections of the Photo Archive.
    Photographs are generally accompanied by typed lists that include the names of the sites and often additional information such as narrative descriptions, church dedications, locations of photographed details, label information for museum objects, and information provided to Hutzel by local inhabitants. Hutzel frequently added his own personal commentary regarding the condition of many sites.
    The photographic prints and accompanying lists have been digitized and the images are available online. Click here to view all digital images   or see the container list for links to images of specific subjects.

    Arrangement

    Arranged into 17 series: Series I. Abruzzo; Series II. Basilicata; Series III. Campania; Series IV. Emilia-Romagna; Series V. Friuli-Venezia Giulia; Series VI. Lazio; Series VII. Lombardia; Series VIII. Marches; Series IX. Molise; Series X. Piedmont; Series XI. Puglia; Series XII. Republic of San Marino; Series XIII. Sardinia; Series XIV. Tuscany; Series XV. Umbria; Series XVI. Veneto; Series XVII. Negatives.

    Indexing Terms

    Subjects - Topics

    Architecture, Ancient -- Italy
    Streets -- Italy
    Architecture, Medieval -- Italy
    Architecture, Baroque -- Italy
    Architecture -- Italy
    Architecture, Renaissance -- Italy
    Art -- Italy
    Art, Italian
    Decorative arts -- Italy
    Cities and towns -- Italy
    Sculpture, Italian
    Painting, Italian

    Genres and Forms of Material

    Black-and-white prints (photographs)
    Black-and-white negatives

    Contributors

    Hutzel, Max
    Sigismondi, Roberto