Sculptural Relief of Victory from the Temple of Victory, the Acropolis, Athens (Front)

I pride myself on the use that I made of the tool invented by Daguerre. I obtained, usually with complete success, various bas-reliefs and statues at the Acropolis, many fragments, and whole monuments.
-Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey

The daguerreotype has been called a "mirror with a memory"-perhaps an especially apt description for this photograph of archaeological remains from the Acropolis. The headless, armless figure, believed to be the goddess of victory from the Temple of Athena Nike, emerges ghostlike from the daguerreotype's polished surface. Surrounding spectral highlights (white dots that were a typical result of the plate's uneven coating and development) seem to enhance the sense of time passage.

This is one of the oldest surviving photographs ever made of the Acropolis, one of the Near East sites that Frenchman Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey traveled to in 1842 to study and document ancient architecture. In subject matter and composition, this image resembles those created by other daguerreotypists in the circle of Daguerre himself. Like those photographers, Girault de Prangey may have been inspired by the centuries-old tradition of artists making sketches after old master works.