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Photographs: ITALIAN ICONS

Monday 18 May 2026, 04:00 PM • Milan

1028

Giovanni Crupi

(1859 - 1925)

Untitled (Chestnut Tree of Cento Cavalli), 1890s

Estimate

€ 400 - 600

Sold

€ 419

The price includes buyer's premium

Information

Salt print
cm 31,6 x 42,2 (cm 26,7 x 37,3 picture) | 12.4 x 16.7 in. (10.5 x 14.7 in. picture)
Photographer's credit stamp on the verso
Giovanni Crupi (Taormina 1861 -1925) began out of passion as a pupil of Giuseppe Bruno, then he understood that he could practice photography as a profession and so, in 1885, he opened his studio "Fotografia Artistica Giovanni Crupi" in Via Teatro Greco in Taormina, far away, as was customary, from the workshop located in Via Fratelli Bandiera. His main subject is the views of the archaeological sites of Taormina, Agrigento, Syracuse. In his city it was inevitable to meet Wilhelm von Gloeden and a friendship and collaboration was born between the two because probably for a certain period Crupi distributed the photographs of the German baron. In 1900 he left his studio and workshop to his nephew Francesco Galifi to move to Heliopolis in Egypt where he worked for ten years before returning to Taormina no longer dedicating himself to filming but to the marketing of his archive.

Before moving to Egypt, as many photographers of the time did, Giovanni Crupi made these two spectacular architectural shots, a genre for which he stands out for his originality. In fact, if he captures the Temple of Concordia in Girgenti from bottom to top to emphasize the raised place from which it dominates the landscape by inserting olive trees and prickly pears to create a theatrical atmosphere, in front of the Syracuse Amphitheater he completely changes perspective. Here we are faced with a surprisingly very modern, almost cinematographic shot where the circularity of the theater is captured as a whole while the figure of the man with the peplos (and here you can feel the influence of Von Gloeden) allows us to measure the grandeur of the place. Very different, and this with a reference to the ancient classicism of Fox Talbot, is the shot of three soaring trees that the choice of printing on salted paper makes even more precious.

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