Object number1987.53.107

Santa Maria del Fiore, Duomo, Florence, Italy

Datec. 1951

Artist Rosalie Thorne McKenna (American, 1918-2003)

CultureAmerican

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 8 1/8 x 6 11/16 in. (20.6 x 17 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of the artist

On View

Not on view

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Photograph

InscribedOn verso, possibly by artist, upper center in pencil: Sta Ma dei Fiore / DUOMO, FLORENCE; in ink: c. 1951; center in pencil: X; lower center in pencil; PROOF ONLY - NOT FOR REPRODUCTION; by unidentified hand, lower right corner in pencil: 87.53.107

MarkingsOn verso, stamped upper center: PHOTO BY: / ROLLIE MCKENNA / 438 EAST 88 STREET / NEW YORK 28, N. Y. / TEL. ENRIGHT 9-3889 / Not To Be Reproduced / Without Permission. / Please Credit With Photo

BibliographyRosalie Thorne McKenna, Rollie McKenna: A Life in Photography (New York: Knopf, 1991), 101. ProvenanceGift of the artist

Vassar Exhibitions

Making a Life in Photography: Rollie McKenna (Loeb)

Label TextMcKenna took her first trip to Europe in 1948 and, according to a later account, she looked “at architecture and fell in love with the buildings.” Her interest in and knowledge of these historical subjects were fostered by a Vassar professor, the architectural historian Richard Krautheimer. She returned to northern Italy in the fall of 1950 and again the next spring. By then she was deeply committed to documenting the most famous projects by Renaissance architects like Brunelleschi, Alberti, and Palladio. Her appreciation of the history of these structures, combined with careful attention to photographic processes and effects, immediately brought these new pictures to the attention of architectural historians and their students across the United States in the mid-twentieth century. One example is her image of Alberti’s church of Sant’Andrea in Mantua from 1951. She later confessed that the biggest challenge in capturing this monumental facade was “the scale and parallax. From the classroom to reality there was a big jump, and I was caught off-balance by the difference in size between what I had visualized and what I found...Even with wide-angle lenses and the swings and tilts of a view camera, I couldn’t get far enough away...to shoot without [it] looking as if [it were] falling backwards.”

DescriptionBuilding façade detail with dark and light pattern of rectangles, arches, and rondels

Terms

Firenze

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu