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[Studio Portrait: Man Wearing Carnival Mask, Venice]

1860s–70s
Not on view
The carte de visite, composed of a print of approximately 2 x 4 inches mounted to card stock, is perhaps the most ubiquitous form of nineteenth-century photography. From the late 1850s through the latter half of the century, these economical keepsakes circulated en masse and spurred a veritable “cartomania.” This is an example of those distributed by the commercial photography studios of Conrad in Naples and Ponti in Venice, depicting occupational “types” related to those cities, such as a hooded member of a religious confraternity, a masked Pulcinella (a stock theater character), a musician, a water carrier, and an oyster shucker, among others. While these stereotypical images charmed tourists interested in foreign customs, they also appealed to a growing clientele of middle-class Italians as a means of reflecting on their own social standing.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [Studio Portrait: Man Wearing Carnival Mask, Venice]
  • Artist: Unknown (Italian)
  • Date: 1860s–70s
  • Medium: Albumen silver print with applied color
  • Dimensions: Image: 8.9 x 5.5 cm Mount: 10.5 x 6.3 cm
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of Drew Knowlton and William L. Schaeffer, in honor of Delaney H. and W. Bruce Lundberg, 2017
  • Object Number: 2017.68.10
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
Our Lady of Valvanera, Unknown Cuzco Artist, Peru, second half of 18th Century, Oil and gold on canvas, Peru (Cuzco)
Unknown
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[Carte-de-visite Album of Collaged Portraits], Unknown, Albumen silver prints
Unknown
1850s–90s
Calvary, Unknown artists, Guatemala, late 18th century, Polychrome wood, gilt silver, glass, hair, Guatemalan
Unknown
ca. 1790
[Carte-de-visite Album of Central Park Views], Stacy's Photographic Carte de Visite  American, Albumen silver prints, gouache, varnish
Photography Studio Stacy's Photographic Carte de Visite
Ambrose Jackson
Publisher J. B. Lippincott Company
1860s
Henri-Charles Maniglier, Unknown, Daguerreotype
Unknown
ca. 1850

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