The Providence Athenæum

Renaissance painter Guido Reni was commissioned in 1614 to paint the ceiling of Roman Cardinal Scipione Borghese’s summer home. The fresco depicts a narrative of the Greek goddess Aurora, as she leads Apollo’s chariot across the night sky towards dawn. This fresco is regarded as a Renaissance masterpiece and has often been recreated.

The use of photography was novel in the mid-nineteenth century, and large scale prints were relatively uncommon. The Athenæum acquired this 19th-century photographic copy of Aurora in 1866 from Anna Richmond. Anna and her husband George enjoyed traveling to Europe and acquired art works that were bequeathed to the RISD Museum of Art upon Anna’s death. It is possible that the Aurora photograph was purchased as a souvenir from one of their visits to Italy, and donated to the Athenæum as a tribute upon the death of George in 1866.

Annual Report of the Directors of the Providence Athenæum to the Proprietors. Providence, Providence Athenæum, 1867, p.8.

Austin, Nancy. "The Half-Life & After-Life of New Media."  Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, vol. 2, article 3, 2015, pp. 18-22.

Edwards, Olivia. “‘Aurora’ Fresco from Palazzo Rospigliosi at Rome.” 2016. ARTH 401: Cataloguing Curiosity, Wheaton College, student paper.