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Copy of a Large Italian Print, Reduced in the Camera

A work made of salted paper print.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of salted paper print.

Date:

c. 1840

Artist:

William Henry Fox Talbot
English, 1800–1877

About this artwork

William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the inventors of photography, developed a negative-positive process that permitted the reproduction and dissemination of images with relative ease. In The Pencil of Nature—one of the first commercially produced, photographically illustrated books—Talbot noted an advantage of the new art form beyond mere duplication: “it enables us at pleasure to alter the scale, and to make the copies as much larger or smaller than the originals as we may desire… . Yet preserving all the proportions of the original.” Here Talbot reduced an 1829 engraving by Luigi Rossini of a Roman arch to approximately 15 percent of its original size. Even on a smaller scale, Talbot’s image retains the delicate lines and detail of the engraving.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

William Henry Fox Talbot

Title

Copy of a Large Italian Print, Reduced in the Camera

Place

England (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1835–1845

Medium

Salted paper print

Dimensions

17.9 × 15.5 cm (7 1/16 × 6 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson

Reference Number

1972.338

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/127285/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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