Around 1860 photography was becoming a widespread phenomenon and an extremely useful tool for the Arts. The photographic technique was proceeding apace in order to make the camera easy to use and more manageable. The countryside photograph is the testimony of the easy transport and use of cameras more smaller than Studio. The evolution of the photosensitive media is closely linked to these new tasks.
The photograph of the countryside and historic monuments was much appreciated by the tourists who came to visit Italy. Tourism was the major source of profit for photographers, tradesmen and amateur photographers who worked in Rome as in other big cities. Just think that in the 1860s there were more than 34 studies of photography that were operating in the roman tourist area of Corso and Piazza Colonna. Around these activities gravitated numerous professional figures of support. Traders of images; sellers of chemicals; the stationers for media and albums; the lithographers who made the marks to be affixed to the back of the photographs; framers; the Stagnari producing pipes can to send pictures abroad; refiners who used to recycle waste materials and not least the retouchers who were often called by the studies or most important artists.
The advent and spread of photography in the Arts caused an immediate sad and inevitable phenomenon: the crisis of engraving, although the repertoire and the subjects were exactly the same. The Art of Engraving was seen soon under threat from birth of the daguerreotype so much that in 1858 some artists signed a petition to the Minister of Commerce, Arts and Industry in a vain attempt to somehow stop this menacing new technology.
In 1860 snapshots did not yet exist, for this reason the views of squares and monuments are almost always empty and devoid of people, the photos were taken usually at dawn. If the photographer saw fit to enliven the scene some peoples were placed in characteristic pose, if necessary. Although, the fishermen in the Tiber, soldiers riding or nothing-lying on the ruins prove unnatural the purpose was achieved. Those poses represented ‘pleasant idleness’ that so passionate tourists. Hardly manage to find minor monuments or unusual subjects.
Our photography is extraordinary even for this reason, it portrays Trajan’s Column, a monument famous and widely photographed, depicted in a situation quite unusual. In the picture the column can not be certainly appreciated for its beauty cause it is completely covered by a wooden scaffolding. So what want to be portrayed is not the the monument itself but rather the work that is taking place on it and the ‘treatment’ to which it was subjected. Unfortunately is not known the name of the author of the photograph, but we know that our anonymous photographer took from a precise point of the Basilica Ulpia (from the same place they were taken more than one during the various phases of work) from which can see the column in its entirety and in relation to the space around the church and on the back.

Anonymous, Trajan Column with scaffolding for plaster casts, Rome 1865 ca.

The massive wooden scaffolding was erected to allow the execution of plaster casts required by Napoleon III to Pope Pius IX. The impressive and exhausting work of molding the ancient marble column and the equally challenging work of realization of the casts was done by the skilled and very well-known roman family of MouldMakers brothers Malpieri between 1862 and 1864. On the column worked Leopoldo Malpieri with his assistance (the signatures of the authors of the company have been inside the capital) while in the workshop located at Corso n. 52-54 Alessandro Malpieri and his assistance were working on the execution of plaster casts. Two series of plaster casts were produced from these molds, the first went to the Pope that he exhibited at the Palazzo del Laterano; the second series took the road to Paris starting packed in wooden crates from the Porto di Ripetta on the Tevere river. Today the first series can be seen at the Museo della Civiltà Romana di Roma where it is in permanent loan from 1951.
Only a true mold maker or who has ever witnessed the practice of molding can imagine the deployment of energy, the work of those men, those materials and how much effort and difficulty involves a work like this size and especially during an era not yet assisted by technology that facilitate greatly the craftsman today. The transport of materials, equipment and tools was done with wagons in tow manual or animal. The production of gypsum powder was still carried in a traditional way with the firing of gypsum in baker’s ovens and crushing in manual mortars. The same increase of all materials on the column and the descent of the heavy molds occurred with pulleys manuals. In the project of molding the development of figurative scene was divided into numerous molds that allowed the reproduction of the total scene in 125 consecutive reliefs. The mold was made with pieces of clay for reasons of conservation of the original marble surfaces (this technique precluded the use of release agents with grease). However molding with clay forced the mold makers on a tight schedule, to avoid drying of the clay and consequently its deformation, the work had to proceed without stopping both on the column for the molds as in the transport of the same in the workshop and the immediate execution of plaster casts. The presence of a large dark cloth on the scaffolding, which is visible in the upper part of the left, is most likely due to the need to make a shadow to avoid rapid drying of the pieces of clay put on the column during molding.
Another photograph of anonymous, taken from exactly the same point (by perhaps by the same author) portrays the column partially covered by the scaffolding, probably during the construction phase. The picture quality is different because a different photosensitive support was used. The first picture is a collodion negative which obtained a lower quality.
The two photos have dates with divergent the dates of the making of casts. However I can say that by studying them in all smallest details I discovered interesting things. The second photo was not made during the construction of the scaffold (as would dating), but rather during the demolition.

Anonymous, Trajan Column with scaffolding for plaster casts, Rome 1861 ca.

After building the complete scaffolding (almost 40 meters high), mold makers have begun the work of molding proceeding three revolutions at a time. The height of two revolutions correspond to an intermediate floor and four revolutions correspond to a double plan scaffold distinguishable from the wood crosses. So they started to remove the molds of the first turn on the top during the molding of the third turn below, and so on. In this way, more or less one complete turn of the spiral of molds was always on the column and not risked detachments caused by the weight or breaks in operation. Every four turns completed and detached, a portion of the scaffolding was removed allowing the easily get off on the floor of all large and heavy molds.
In the photo are visible molds of white plaster leaning against the scaffold structure waiting to be lowered. The shape and size coincide perfectly with the reliefs in plaster. With a bit of attention is also possible to distinguish a wood beam inclined upwards and the rope to pulley drop them to the ground. In the bottom right can see a roofing with other molds stored inside, to protect them from the sun and ready to be carried to the workshop.