The Capitoline 1846

This is Calvert Richard Jones’s photograph, "The Capitoline," created using the calotype process sometime in the mid-nineteenth century. Jones, a Welsh clergyman and photographer, captured this image during a time when photography was emerging as both an art form and a tool for documentation. The photograph depicts the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome, dominated by the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. During this era, Rome held a particular fascination as the heart of the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church, attracting artists, intellectuals, and tourists alike. Jones, like many of his contemporaries, used photography to capture the grandeur and historical weight of such sites. What strikes me most is the way this image invites us to reflect on the gaze of the colonizer. As Europe expanded its empires, photographs like these served to document and, in a way, possess distant lands and cultures. Yet, there's also a personal element here—Jones’s own encounter with Rome, translated into a visual experience that we can still engage with today. The photograph thus becomes a site where personal artistic expression meets broader cultural and political dynamics.