As history became everyday experience and chronicle, the language of illustrations found a way to express itself in the frenetic production of iconographic documents related to contemporary events and personalities.
During the nineteenth century, images constituted a veritable iconographic heritage of that national memory that was becoming fixed. They told stories of and described men, events, personalities. They were disseminated through engravings, paintings, photographs. Possession of such images became a sort of adherence-participation in shared ideals and values, nourished and supported by diverse types of images. They became part of those collections that were large or small private galleries, domestic pantheons to be exhibited in certain circles or preserved and enjoyed in strictly private or elitist viewings.
By acquiring photographs, watercolors, drawings, paintings, and lithographs, the collection of images relating to the Republic and to Rome of 1849 could respond to the diversified demands of tourism as well as of those who in various guises participated in the life of the Roman Republic or who had witnessed events during the war.
Beyond the significant differences inherent in the various expressive techniques, one could create a personal museum of visual evidence to add often to one's drawings, sketches.
The similarity, if one makes a comparison between images that are part of different collections is only partially related to the object represented, to the landscape lines. What is different, however, is the attention that distinguishes the photographers' way of working from that of other artists who had longer times to organize and process the image even long after the events.
Owning images of places became for the owner, often a witness or protagonist of events, a means of recording and preserving memory. We can assume that through the depiction of the new ruins of Rome emerged the memory of the struggle sustained and the protagonists of the life of the Republic.
These were iconographic collections diversified in techniques and in the personal interpretation of the artists but born with a single reference, Rome and the Republic of 1849, and plausibly a very specific purpose: to gather and transmit those visual testimonies of an individual experience that was on its way to becoming the collective memory of a people as well.
The collections of Calandrelli, Bertani, and Caetani (who owned the album that he later gifted to Cheney) are only some of the many collections that were being put together at this time. And it would be significant to point out the relationships that link the owners of the images to the artists. The relationships of patronage, of intermediation, of liaison held at times by prominent figures such as Michelangelo Caetani should also be highlighted. But not only that; a significant sign of the interest in these collections that were being assembled and of the new cult that arose after Italian unification can be observed by the presence of large collections at important exhibitions such as the 1884 exhibition in Turin and, above all, the 1911 exhibition in Rome.
It is interesting to follow the development of the preparatory phase of this exhibition. In 1908, within the Comitato per l’Esposizione di Roma del 1911 (aimed at solemnly celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Italy), it was established that the Seventh Section would prepare an Exhibition of the Risorgimento “with special regard to the history of Rome and the Papal State” [1]. This Comitato was joined by the National Comitato nazionale per la Storia del Risorgimento established in 1906, which had among its main purposes the establishment of a Museo del Risorgimento on the premises of the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. The exhibition was envisioned as the first nucleus of the future museum and therefore the Comitato nazionale provided financial help and made available the rich material preserved in the Sezione Risorgimento of the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele. The exhibition, “following a rigorous and well-balanced direction” [2], was intended to illustrate “in its most important moments, the history of Rome from 1791, when for the first time an echo of the French Revolution reached the Caesarean walls, to the day when it was de facto the capital of Italy” [3]. The exhibit was set up in the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II.
Among the documents on display were also many that had belonged to Calandrelli. In fact, the Catalogo della Mostra reads, “Papers of Alessandro Calandrelli. They fill ten folders and contain documents from various periods from 1842 to 1869, but especially concerning the Roman Republic of 1849. We note among other things his autograph memoirs on the events in Rome of 1848-49 and his imprisonment” [4] (Mostra 1913).
Also presented on lectern 145 were “Photographs of the ruins of Rome after the siege of 1849. From the Papers of Alessandro Calandrelli. (Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele, Sezione del Risorgimento)” [5] (Mostra 1913). It is therefore likely that an album containing the original salted papers now kept at the Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea was placed on the lectern. Also appearing on Exhibit board 140 are “Ruins of Rome and Episodes of the Siege of Rome in 1849. Some photographs from the daguerreotype (Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele, Sezione Risorgimento)”. [6]. It cannot be ruled out that the word "daguerreotype" was improperly used to define the photographic copies currently kept at the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento in Rome. This hypothesis could provide a date (and a motivation) for when the copies were made and would justify the reason why Lecchi’s work was known and studied this way while his original prints were completely forgotten.
[1] «con speciale riguardo alla storia di Roma e dello Stato pontificio»
[2] «seguendo un rigoroso e ben saldo indirizzo»
[3] «nei suoi momenti principali la storia di Roma dal 1791, quando per la prima volta un’eco della rivoluzione di Francia giunse tra le mura cesaree, fino al giorno in cui fu di fatto capitale d’Italia»
[4] «Carte di Alessandro Calandrelli. Riempiono dieci cartelle e contengono documenti di vari periodi dal 1842 al 1869, ma specialmente riguardanti la Repubblica romana del 1849. Notiamo fra l’altro le sue memorie autografe sui fatti di Roma del 1848-49 e sulla sua prigionia»
[5] «Fotografie delle rovine di Roma dopo l’assedio del 1849. Dalle carte di Alessandro Calandrelli (Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele, Sezione del Risorgimento)»
[6] «Rovine di Roma ed episodi dell’assedio di Roma del 1849. Alcune fotografie tratte dal daguerrotipo (Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele, Sezione Risorgimento)»
(Maria Pia Critelli)