Ongania Architecture Venice Views 1891 Corte Dolfin A Castello

Corte Dolfin A Castello 
14 by 21 1/4 inches
ONG58 $225

These hauntingly beautiful original photogravures are of a bygone era in Venice, from the first and only Italian edition of Calli E Canali in Venezia. Ferdinando Ongania was an antiquarian book seller, with a shop in St. Mark's Square, Venice. His love of Venice inspired him to record the architecture of his beloved city, but Calli E Canali in Venezia was surely his masterpiece. St Mark's Museum in Venice had an exhibit in 2011 celebrating Ongania's work. 

 These beautiful, finely produced original photogravures on creamy, luxurious thick paper reveal a Venice of a bygone era that has been lost forever. It captures a more serene time in the nineteenth century before the annual invasion of 15 million tourists that the city now experiences. The luminous photogravures, in subtle black and sepia tones, portray an idyllic world of palazzos, canals, and bridges where scenes of enchanting beauty were part of everyday life.

 These photogravures capitalized on two major photographic advances of the time to capture images that were simply impossible before this point in history. Never before could a photographer capture people in motion until the 1880's and in 1878 Czech painter Karel Klic refined the photogravure process to improve image clarity and detail to the breathtaking levels seen in this work. So great was Karel's process that it has never been improved upon.