Jérusalem, Porte de Jaffa, Inscription
Auguste Salzmann French
Printer Imprimerie photographique de Blanquart-Évrard, à Lille French
Not on view
Each feature of this gate, including the inscription shown here, marks the significance of crossing the holy city’s boundaries. Nestled beneath a pointed arch and surrounded by three small medallions, it indicates that the Ottoman sultan Süleyman the Magnificent built the gate in October 1538. Prior to photography’s application in archaeology, every aspect of the ornate Arabic script would have been painstakingly drawn by hand to create a single copy for study. With the advent of the paper negative process and industrial photographic printing, inscriptions could be readily reproduced and distributed with little additional effort on the part of the artist.
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