Palermo: In the Park of the Villa Tasca, 1895 (print 1925)

About the Work

In 1876 his lung disease caused Wilhelm von Gloeden to settle in Sicily where he took up photography. In his works he revives the ideal of Antiquity. Framed with cypresses and pine trees a temple is elevated above a lake and transports the viewer to a past, pastoral time. The blurred reflexions on the surface of the water turn the view into an atmospheric landscape. However, to the photographer the given aspects do not suffice: in order to emphasise the idyllic effect, he adds two swans from another photograph.