In the 2nd C A.D., more than 1.5 million people lived in Rome. In the mid 19th C, the population was a tenth that size. Visitors were struck by the plethora of ruins within and surrounding the city. Instead of the white marble they expect, Edward and Carl find red brick and dust.
Yet Rome was also a cultural center, where not only was the art of the past on display, but artists still trained, including Scandinavians like Eckersberg and (perhaps of more interest to readers of this blog) women sculptors like Harriet Hosmer.
For a video from a 2009–2010 exhibition, “Steps Off the Beaten Path: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Rome and Its Environs,” click here.
And, please, if you have ever read about a place and then found it different when you visited, tell us about it in the comments!
Yet Rome was also a cultural center, where not only was the art of the past on display, but artists still trained, including Scandinavians like Eckersberg and (perhaps of more interest to readers of this blog) women sculptors like Harriet Hosmer.
For a video from a 2009–2010 exhibition, “Steps Off the Beaten Path: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Rome and Its Environs,” click here.
And, please, if you have ever read about a place and then found it different when you visited, tell us about it in the comments!