Fronton du Tombeau de Josaphat, Vallée de Josaphat, Jérusalem
Auguste Salzmann French
Printer Imprimerie photographique de Blanquart-Évrard, à Lille French
Not on view
Ridiculed by fellow scholars for contending that many architectural fragments examined on an 1850 expedition to Jerusalem dated from the period of David and Solomon, Félicien Caignart de Saulcy was further accused of having provided fanciful and inaccurate site drawings to support his thesis. Salzmann, an artist and archaeologist, entered this scholarly fray in late 1853, setting off for Jerusalem to study and photograph the disputed monuments; after four months' work, he returned to Paris with nearly 175 negatives. The conclusive power of his photographs was self-evident, and de Saulcy declared himself vindicated by "a most able draftsman, in truth, and one whose good faith would be difficult to question . . . the sun."
