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A panoramic daguerreotype of a city with the dome of a church dominating the view.

Images of Italy

National Library of Scotland

National Library of Scotland

16 May 2024 – 2 November 2024

This exhibition explored how visual representations of Italy developed. These range from 15th-century woodcuts to 19th-century photography. Early book illustrators usually presented a highly idealised, almost mythical, view of the country. They focussed on magnificent Roman ruins, imposing Renaissance buildings, and beautiful rural scenes. The invention of photography in the 19th century provided a new way to record Italy. Drawing on The Ruskin’s collection of 125 of Ruskin’s daguerreotypes of Florence, Pisa and Venice, Sandra Kemp curated the section dedicated to Ruskin, alongside other Early photographers who continued the picturesque tradition of book illustrators.

A daguerreotype of a building façade highlighting its columns and arches.
A panoramic daguerreotype of a city with the dome of a church dominating the view.
A square cropped image of a daguerreotype photograph (greyscale) depicting the Cathedral of Pisa.
Left to right:
John Ruskin & John Hobbs, ‘Venice. St. Mark’s. Principal façade. South-west portico. Angled view’, 1850, 1996D0014 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
John Ruskin & Le Cavalier Iller, ‘Florence. Panorama from the south’, 1845, 1996D0052 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
John Ruskin, Le Cavalier Iller & John Hobbs, ‘Pisa. The Cathedral and leaning tower’, 1846, 1996D0057 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University

The Ruskin and Lancaster University’s Innovation Team developed a Web Platform as part of ‘Images of Italy’, which provides more information about Ruskin’s daguerreotypes in the exhibition through a series of short films. This includes a link to a film produced by the V&A – ‘How is it made? The Daguerreotype‘.