Fotoreproductie van de Malvagna-triptiek naar Jan Gossaert in het Palazzo Abatellis te Palermo, Italië 1857 - 1914

Curator: This gelatin silver print captures the Malvagna Triptych attributed to Jan Gossaert. The photograph, by Giorgio Sommer, dates between 1857 and 1914. Editor: The tonal range is so limited, it almost drains the colour. What a fascinating rendering, a copy removed even further from the original by the distancing effect of the camera and photographic chemistry. It feels mournful, yet oddly detached. Curator: Consider how Sommer's composition simplifies the play of light across the three panels. The focus is drawn to the central panel, establishing a clear visual hierarchy, guiding the viewer's gaze and emphasizing the main subject—the Virgin and Child. Editor: The triptych format itself echoes the dominant ideologies surrounding family, piety, and social order during the Renaissance and also arguably during the photographic reproduction. How might those themes translate into the 19th century context through photography? Were those the values still relevant? Curator: What strikes me most is how the limited tonal scale flattens the perspective. The linear aspects in each panel—the implied orthogonals, framing architectures, all seem compressed, flattening any spatial recession and heightening the surface materiality. Editor: It's striking how the photograph translates Renaissance ideals. We are positioned as distant observers. What did this image represent for viewers in its own time? Perhaps access to high art? The exoticism of Italian Renaissance painting? Curator: There’s a dialogue here, spanning centuries and media. We see echoes of Gossaert’s composition filtered through Sommer's lens, reflecting changing tastes, reproductive technologies, and our own perceptions. Editor: A ghostly artifact then, this photo carries with it not just the echo of a painting but the whispers of cultural values across centuries. It pushes us to reflect on shifting ideas, power dynamics and legacies.