The Walls of Pompeii

Giorgio Sommer
Italian, born in Germany, 1834-1914
The Walls of Pompeii, about 1872
Albumen print from wet collodion negative
20.8 x 24.3 cm (8 ⅜ x 9 ½ in.) Sheet
22.7 x 31.5 cm (8 ⅞ x 12 ⅜ in.) Mount

Giorgio Sommer established the image of Naples in 19th century photography. His images of the city, the gulf and Amalfi coast, and the volcanic brutality of Mount Vesuvius juxtaposed the joys and terrors of life. Sommer was a skilled entrepreneur whose organization accomplished every phase of the business from gathering negatives, to distributing photographs in retail and through mail-order. He was born Georg Gauff in Frankfurt-am-Main, the ninth child in an innkeeper’s family.1 When his father fell victim to a gambling addiction in middle age, and lost the guesthouse, his sons went to work to support the family. Georg became an apprentice to a local photographer in 1848. After completing his training he worked as an independent professional for a few years before moving to Italy. In Rome he worked in partnership with his fellow countryman Edmund Behles in a studio that catered to tourists from northern Europe.2 They specialized in stereographs and small format prints, representing the splendours of the ancient and baroque city, and ancient sculpture from the Vatican collections. Perhaps to provide a Latin flavor to the studio, Gauff reinvented himself in Italy, changing his name to Giorgio Sommer.

In 1857 Sommer moved to Naples, and opened a studio at 168 Via di Chiaia, near the shops of such other foreign photographers as Roberto Rive and Alphonse Bernoud. Although at first he made portrait photographs, his mission was to collect photographs of a coastal and rural Italy, to complement the ancient and papal subjects of the partners' Roman photographs. Sommer explored Campania with his camera, photographing the Bay of Naples, the island of Capri and Mount Vesuvius. In 1861 he married Antonia Schmid, the daughter of a Moravian-born piano maker, and together they raised a son and a daughter. 

Sommer calculated his subjects for the demands of tourists, especially German tourists, whose interests centered in Mediterranean landscape, art and antiques. There was also a fascination with the people of Southern Italy and popular traditions, influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's popular Italienische Reise (Italian Journey), fond reports of his own travels during the 1780s.3 In photographs both real and staged, Sommer represented handsome young people or good natured peasants, rather than hardships of life and crushing poverty of Southern Italy. These images drew upon the Neapolitan tradition of engraved costume prints, popular since the eighteenth century. One of the photographs from an extended series depicting street musicians and vendors is the Root Seller (Fig. 00). Apparently sitting in a studio courtyard, this lazzarone is represented as if he were on a sunny piazza, atop the basket in which he carried the vegetables from his garden. He comforts himself with his pipe and a fiasco of wine while waiting for customers. Despite his calloused feet and tattered coat he appears content.

Already during the 1860s Mount Vesuvius came to dominate Sommer's repertoire. Both awe inspiring and terrible, this active volcano looming over the Bay of Naples was a constant threat. During the 1st century CE, the Roman city of Pompeii flourished as a port hub between the Bay of Naples and Rome. It was surrounded by fertile agricultural land, with prosperous working farms and elegant country villas. When Vesuvius erupted in October of 79 CE, Pompeii was quickly inundated by a pyroclastic surge of superheated gas and pulverized rock.4 Some about 2,000 Pompeiians perished within minutes, as did nearly 16,000 in the neighboring town of Herculaneum, and area farms and countryside. The ash and tufa that buried the city preserved the moment of its destruction. The ruins of Pompeii were rediscovered in the 16th century, but remained mostly undisturbed until 1748. Its excavation and investigation was a newsworthy event, sparking waves of tourism and a Neoclassical revival of the arts.5 Treasure hunters and archaeologists unearthed the city's buildings which were unusually well preserved. They recovered works of art and furnishings, everyday objects and household goods littering the streets. Graffiti written on ancient walls provided insight into the colloquial language of the day, quite different from literary Latin.

In Sommer's time, when a widening segment of European society enjoyed travel, his photographs of Pompeii, and the artifacts discovered there, were favorite souvenirs. He regularly photographed at Vesuvius, Pompeii and Herculaneum, sometimes working on commission, and sometimes collecting his own negatives. He produced medium-format prints, he also produced stereographs and cartes-de-visite of Pompeiian subjects. Sommer also photographed ancient works of art and artifacts excavated at Pompeii, at the Museo Nazionale at Naples. In 1863 the architect Giuseppe Fiorelli became head of the government archeology programs at Pompeii. Sommer worked closely with him, photographing his archeological excavations in progress, and the artifacts they discovered.6 It was Fiorelli who realized that occasional gaps in the petrified ash were left by decomposed organic material, including the bodies of people and animals. He devised a method of injecting plaster of Paris into the voids; the surrounding tufa was then removed to reveal a hardened plaster cast of a person or animal at the moment of their death. The process disclosed the positions, expressions, and even the clothing of the deceased. Sommer photographed all the plaster casts, and the images became perennial favorites in his shops.

In 1865, Behles and Sommer received a royal endorsement from the Italian king Vittorio Emanuele II; the following year Sommer won a similar award from Charles I, king of Württemberg. These two medals appeared on Sommers's mounts, catalogues and advertisements throughout his career. Sommers and Behles ended their partnership in 1866, while the Naples operations continued to flourish. Sommers opened a second shop at Via Monte di Dio 8, in Naples in 1868, and two years later the studio published the first independent catalogue of its available images. At that time, the studio produced photographic prints in medium formats (8 x 10 in., 21 x 27 cm, and 11 x 15 in., 28 x 38 cm), and could mount selections from its stock in custom albums. Although Sommer's photographs of the licentious frescoes from Pompeii reflect Victorian propriety, his photographs of museum works and sculptural facsimiles accurately represent the full beauty of the human figure. Sommer is unique among his peers for developing a related business in facsimile art objects, cast in bronze or terracotta, or carved in marble, and available in three different patinas.7 These were copies of ancient works of art in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Statuettes scaled for a tabletop, these "grand tour bronzes'' are still prized by collectors.

Photographs of Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii comprised a large portion of Sommer's repertoire. He published images of the volcano from across the bay, the lava fields on its slopes, the funicular that carried visitors to its summit, and the view down into its smouldering mouth. Sommer produced many photographs of the layout of the ancient Pompeiian streets, the vestiges of excavated buildings, and the artifacts found there. This photograph, which combines both subjects, demonstrates the photographer's grasp of his market.8 He created a straightforward image for purchasers who wanted one encompassing keepsake. This photograph suggests how the extensive ruins of Pompeii conveyed to visitors a real sense of life among the ancient Romans. The archeological site revealed the scale of their rooms and houses, what it was like to walk in the city's paved streets, and the proximity of the volcano above the city. In this photograph its menace was probably enhanced by a plume of volcanic smoke painted onto the negative.

Sommer had an ability to find a quintessential viewpoint, often unexpected, that captured the quality of a place, or sentiment in a work of art. His largely intuitive sense of design combined visual balance and emotional sensitivity. 

Vesuvius erupted on April 26, 1872 expelling lava from a fissure on the northwestern side of the mountain. Twenty spectators perished on the mountain, and the Volcano Observatory was surrounded by lava, isolating its staff for several days. The nearby villages of Fossa della Vetrana and Fossa Faraone were inundated, while both Masa and San Sebastiano al Vesuvio were destroyed. Spectacular, explosive eruptions at the summit on April 28 led to the collapse of a crater and formation of a caldera. Sommer photographed these events, often in half hour intervals, producing images with scientific objectivity rather than spectacular tourist appeal.

In Naples, Sommer purchased property on the Piazza della Vittoria in 1872, where he had a building constructed to accommodate his studios, retail shop, and living quarters for his wife, children, grandchildren and servants. At the height of his career the photographer operated four different shops in Naples as well as a developing and printing lab in Via Monte di Dio. A staff of 12 handled every stage of production, sales, and distribution throughout Europe.