Rome: Fishermen on the Tiber near the Castel Sant’Angelo, Gioacchino Altobelli
Gioacchino Altobelli
Rome: Fishermen on the Tiber near the Castel Sant’Angelo
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Gioacchino Altobelli

Rome: Fishermen on the Tiber near the Castel Sant’Angelo, ca. 1860


Blatt
27.7 x 38 cm
Karton
47.8 x 62.4 cm
Physical Description
Albumen print mounted on cardboard
Inventory Number
St.F.709
Acquisition
Ancient holdings. Acquired in the 19th century
Status
Not on display

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About the Work

Gioacchino Altobelli had previously been active as a history and portrait painter. Here he staged Christian Rome in a photographic composition distinguished by the utmost harmony. The Ponte Sant’Angelo with its Baroque sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini divides the pictorial field about halfway between top and bottom, leaving plenty of space for the reflections of St Peter’s Basilica and the Castel Sant'Angelo in the smooth surface of the Tiber. The photographer was judicious in his choice of staffage in the foreground. The pipe smoker’s fishing rod and the long stick leaning against the shoulder of the man on the bank point the viewer’s gaze to the main monuments, which appear all the more imposing

as a result. At the same time, with the fishing motif Altobelli was alluding to symbolic imagery widespread in the Christian pictorial tradition. He was one of the city’s most successful photographers.

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Last update

26.11.2024