[PHOTOGRAPHY - ITALY, NAYA]. Venice, Florence: a travel albu - Lot 258

[PHOTOGRAPHY - ITALY, NAYA]. Venice, Florence: a travel album by an art lover. Place and date unknown [late 19th century]. 61 photographs (most prints are captioned), including 7 color-enhanced ones, 3 printed in blue, various formats (250 x 185 mm or 145 x 100 mm) mounted on leaves attached by tabs in a quarto-sized album with full brown shagreen cover, ribbed spine, initials “M.H.M.” in gold lettering on the front cover. Binding rubbed at the joints and corners with small areas of leather wear; pages slightly warped. A remarkable travel album by an art lover, featuring 19 views of Venice: St. Mark’s Square, a gondola, palaces, and paintings from the “Gallerie dell’Accademia” (Bonifaccio, Palma Vecchio, Veronese, etc.). These photographs are signed in the print as “C. Naya. fot. Venezia.” Carlo Naya (1816–1882) is considered one of the pioneers of photography in Italy. He produced a large number of photographs of Venice intended for tourists. The second part of the album consists of views of Florence (the cathedral, the Ponte Vecchio, the Church of Santa Croce, the Pitti Palace, etc.) and photographs of paintings from the Pizzi and Uffizi galleries (Titian, Raffaello Sanzio, etc.).