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Franz Thiard de Laforest, author of the Book Spalato und Seine Alterthumer (1878.)
Nada Grčević
; Samostalni istraživač
Sažetak
The article deals with Franz Thiard de Laforest (1838-1911), a Vienna photographer and an interesting personality of a distinguished Burgundian descent (Thiard de Bissy family, going back to the beginning of the 16 century). He came to Dalmatia in the 1860s, and, fascinated by the beauty of the Mediterranean landscape, and the charm of the old urban settlements and their historical monuments, he displayed a special interest for outdoors photography. After a stay in Zadar and Šibenik, from where he undertook long working journeys to as far as Boka Kotorska, he settled by the mid-seventies in Split, There, he published a book Spalato und Seine Alterthumer (Split and its Antiquities) with original photographs in 1878. Only one copy of the book has been preserved. The article offers to interested art historians and experts in monuments preservation a summary of Laforests's text describing the historical heritage of Split and Salona, its importance and the state of preservation, before the launching of comprehensive restoration projects — from the reconstruction of the Palace of Diocletian in 1877 to renovation of the tower of Split Cathedral in begun in 1882. Laforest's photographs have been given a particular attention, as well as their dating, and the specific and complicated»wet«collodion process of picture taking. Taking Diocletian's Palace as an example, both potentials and drawbacks of the photography of that period have been presented, and a plausible thesis has been proposed, i.e., that all photographs from and around the Palace were taken the same day from the same improvised and centrally located lab in the vicinity of the Peristyle, thus avoiding moving the heavy equipment In her conclusion, the author emphasizes the fact that Laforest's book through its photographs, and especially through its expert approach to the text, represents a unique achievement among the works of the 19th
century photographers on the territory of Croatia. As the book also aims at being a guide of Split monuments and Salona's archeological sites, it is also the first book of that genre, anticipating by sixteen years the guide of Split and Salona by the famous archeologist Don Frane Bulić (published in 1894).
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
147918
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.12.2002.
Posjeta: 1.526 *