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Tomb of the Virgin, Jerusalem

Auguste Salzmann1854

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

In 1854, Auguste Salzmann was commissioned by the French Ministry of Public Instruction to document the holy city of Jerusalem. His charge was to substantiate the controversial theories about dating ancient ruins proposed by his friend, Louis Félicien de Saulcy, a noted antiquarian. Unlike almost all other photographers documenting architecture in the 19th century, Salzmann relied on extreme close-up views. In this example, he eliminated most of the building, concentrating on the door of the tomb and its surrounding architectural elements. As a result, all indications of scale, terrain, placement, and context normally found in documentary photographs are absent, while the abstract textural and surface qualities of the tomb are emphasized.

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  • Title: Tomb of the Virgin, Jerusalem
  • Creator: Auguste Salzmann (French, 1824-1872), Gide et J. Baudry
  • Date Created: 1854
  • Physical Dimensions: Image: 22.7 x 32.8 cm (8 15/16 x 12 15/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
  • Provenance: (Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York, NY), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Photograph
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1996.10
  • Medium: salted paper print, Blanquart-Évrard process, from waxed paper negative
  • Series: Jérusalem: Étude et reproduction photographique des monuments de la ville sainte depuis l'époque Judaïque jusqu'a nos jours
  • Inscriptions: Written in negative: "89"; in pencil on verso: "4011"
  • Department: Photography
  • Culture: France; France, 19th century
  • Credit Line: John L. Severance Fund
  • Collection: PH - French 19th Century
  • Accession Number: 1996.10
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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