Description
An album of 130 albumen photgraphs by Robert Macpherson of Greek and Roman sculpture held in the
Vatican Museum, along with installation views of six of the halls housing the sculpture. The album documents the museum as
it was arranged in the
1860s.
Background
Robert MacPherson was a Scottish painter turned photographer and some-time art dealer, active in Rome from 1851 until his
death. While he produced
views of Rome's classical ruins, churches, fountains, piazzas and villas, and of the Roman Campagna and surrounding towns,
McPherson's main interest was
in photographing sculpture. He was the first to photograph the interior of the Vatican palace, and he had ambitions to photograph
not only all of the
Vatican's significant sculptures, but all of the major sculpture collections in Rome.