Fragmenten van de muur van Servius Tullius in het Palazzo Antonelli te Rome, Italië 1860 - 1880

The Fratelli d' Alessandri created this photograph of fragments from the wall of Servius Tullius in the Palazzo Antonelli in Rome. Photography played a crucial role in shaping how 19th-century audiences understood their history. The ancient fragments, carefully arranged in the Palazzo, speak to a desire to preserve and display Rome's rich past. This impulse grew alongside the Risorgimento, the movement for Italian unification, where the symbols of ancient Rome were employed to cultivate a sense of national identity. This photograph testifies to the growing importance of museums and private collections in preserving cultural heritage. The arrangement of the fragments in the Palazzo suggests an institutional effort to categorize and display history for public consumption, transforming private space into a stage for historical narratives. To truly understand the photograph, we must investigate the history of archaeology, museology, and Italian nationalism. It is through such social and institutional contexts that we can understand how images like this help to shape our understanding of the past.