Macpherson's Vatican Sculptures, 1863?

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Summary

Title:

Macpherson's Vatican Sculptures

Dates:

1863?

Creators:

Macpherson, Robert, 1815 or 1816-1872

Abstract:

An album of 130 albumen photgraphs by Robert Macpherson of Greek and Roman sculpture held in the Vatican Museum, along with installation views of six of the halls housing the sculpture. The album documents the museum as it was arranged in the 1860s.

Extent:

1 Linear Feet (1 album containing 130 photographs)

Language:

Collection material is in English.

Preferred citation:

Mcpherson's Vatican Sculptures, 1863, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 91.R.3.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa91r3

Background

Scope and content:

The album contains 126 albumen photographs by Robert Macpherson of Greek and Roman sculpture held in the Vatican Museum ( Museo Pio-Clementino). The album is organized by the halls in which the sculptures are displayed, and installation views of six of the halls (Braccio Nuovo, Chiaramonte, Hall of the Animals, Hall of Statues, Hall of the Greek Cross, and the Hall of the Candelabra) precede the images of their respective contents. The album documents the museum as it was arranged in the 1860s.

The album is velum-bound with a gilt-stamped red leather title plate on its spine which also has banding and the photographer's name directly gilt-stamped onto it. An inventory number (?) is inked above the title plate. The back paste-down bears a shelf label: Accession No. 3744; Date 1901. The album was assembled and bound for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

A list entitled "Macpherson's Vatican Sculptures, Printed and Published in London by Emily Faithful," serves as the title page to the album. Numbers pencilled on the mounts below the images correspond to this inventory, and the titles of the individual photgraphs are taken directly from this list. Nine mounts bear the blind stamp: R. McPherson / Rome (in an oval border with photograph number pencilled in the center of the oval).

The versos of the mounts bear the Boston Museum of Fine Arts wet stamp in their centers: M. F. A. (enclosed in an oval), and printed M. F. A. labels, with the object number inked in, are adhered to the upper left corners, occasionally with annotations pencilled next to them.

Biographical / historical:

Robert MacPherson was a Scottish painter turned photographer and some-time art dealer, active in Rome from 1851 until his death. While he produced views of Rome's classical ruins, churches, fountains, piazzas and villas, and of the Roman Campagna and surrounding towns, McPherson's main interest was in photographing sculpture. He was the first to photograph the interior of the Vatican palace, and he had ambitions to photograph not only all of the Vatican's significant sculptures, but all of the major sculpture collections in Rome.

In 1863 MacPherson published his Vatican Sculptures, Selected and Arranged in the Order in Which They Are Found in the Galleries (London: Chapman & Hall) containing 125 wood engravings based on his photographs by his wife, Geralidine. At the same time he issued an album of 126 photographs of Vatican sculptures.

Acquisition information:

Acquired in 1989?

Processing information:

Beth Ann Guynn wrote the finding aid in 2020.

Arrangement:

Arranged in a single series: Series I. Macpherson's Vatican Sculptures, 1863.

Physical location:

Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Classical antiquities
Sculpture, Greek
Sculpture, Roman
Art museums -- Vatican City
Sculpture, Ancient -- Vatican City
Photographs, Original.
Albumen prints -- Italy -- 19th century
Names:: Museo Pio-Clementino (Vatican City)

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:: Beth Ann Guynn
Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-05-14 13:49:38 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:: Open for use by qualified researchers.
Terms of access:: Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.