The Silver Canvas - Daguerrotype Masterpieces (Art Photography Ebook)

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Chapter Three THE ARTIFICIAL RETINA Detail, Plate 45 THE CONCLUSION of Francois Arago's January 1839 announcement about the daguerreotype process, the eminent phy- A T sicist Jean Baptiste Biot (1774-1862) rose immediately to add his own words of praise for Daguerre s discovery For Biot, the potential for illustrating monuments was secondary to the impact he saw the daguerreotype would have on the acquisition of scientific knowledge. He considered the daguerreotype a valuable new research tool, one that would serve, he said, as an "artificial retina." Every observation could now be made with a completely neutral eye, and recorded with absolute fidelity. In his own field of physics, Biot prophesied that the daguerreotype would lead to uncovering the true nature of the primary element of the universe—light. 1 Astronomers were among the first to extend their research with the aid of the daguerreotype. <strong>The</strong>y immediately combined the telescope and the camera to increase vastly their basic information. Together, these tools allowed them to keep more accurate records of the constellations at any given time. Now their observations of the skies could be preserved, and precise comparisons could be made, as the heavenly bodies changed their positions. As early as 1843, it was reported that an observatory in Rome had succeeded in "combining the power of the telescope and the daguerreotype" to produce a perfect celestial atlas, a "map of the heavens." 2 If all of these separate views could be pasted together, the reporter added, they would require a domed space as large as the interior of London's Saint Pauls Cathedral. <strong>The</strong> author s forecast of such a view of the heavens was not realized until eighty years later, when, in 1923, the world's first planetarium opened in Dresden. Successful views of solar eclipses and studies of the moon also were obtained in the early years of the daguerreotype, both in Europe and America. Not until 1851, however, was a finely detailed view of the moon's surface produced. This was accomplished by Boston daguerreotypist John A. Whipple (1822-1891), who was able to work with the world's largest telescope at the Harvard College Observatory. His achievement, for which he was awarded a prize, attracted enormous attention at the London Crystal Palace exhibition. 3 During those early years, the daguerreotype also became an indispensable companion to the microscope. Previously, scientists complained that artists working directly from the microscope could not attain the rigorous fidelity the minute details demanded, and one writer described this work as being executed "in the same manner as that in which IOI
T H E S I L V E R C A N V A S FIGURE 21 Engravings after Daguerreotypes Made by Leon Foulcault French (1819-1868) Published in Alfred Donne, Cours de microscopie (Paris 1845), pi. ii 84.XB.950.8.H a portrait-painter produces his effects." To make the drawing absolutely accurate, he said, it must be "independent altogether of those impulses which imagination and taste never fail to impart to the pencil, even of the most conscientious artist." Now these details "have been happily supplied by photography," and the writer praised the work of the French scientist Alfred Donne, who in 1845 had engravings made from daguerreotypes taken through the 102
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THE SILVER CANVAS
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FOREWORD WHEN THE GETTY MUSEUM bega
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T H E S I L V E R C A N V A S The s
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INTRODUCTION WHEN FRANCOIS ARAGO, F
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I N T R O D U C T I O N The rich co
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THE SILVER CANVAS FIGURE 9 WILLIAM
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T H E S I L V E R C A N V A S The S
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FIGURE II Louis JACQUES MANDE DAGUE
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Chapter One THE WORLD POSES FOR THE
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T H E W O R L D P O S E S F O R T H
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THE WORLD P O S E S FOR THE SUN of
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P L A T E S Chapter One
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THE WORLD P O S E S FOR THE SUN
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Chapter Two STEALING FROM THE MIRRO
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FIGURE 33 FERDINAND RICHARDT Americ
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Chapter Five CAPTURING THE MOMENT D
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C A P T U R I N G T H E M O M E N T
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P L A T E S Chapter Five
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T H E S I L V E R C A N V A S By us
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