Cdv of Count Thaon di Revel (standing) and General Alessandro della Rovere (sitting) by Fratelli Alinari by Fratelli Alinari.
Atelier address: Piazza San Gaetano, Florence.
Activity: from 1852 to 1920.
Date: 1863ca (before they moved in their new atelier).
More about Fratelli Alinari:
Fratelli Alinari is the world's oldest photographic firm still active in the field of photography, and more generally, in the sphere of the image and communication.
Its history began when the second child of a working-class family in the Florentine quarter of San Frediano, Leopoldo Alinari (1832 – 1865) acquired the first notions of art as a young apprentice at the time well-known shop of the Florentine chalcographer Luigi Bardi. In the early 1850s, encouraged by Giuseppe Bardi, he became interested in photography, and shortly thereafter, in 1852 and with the financial aid of the copperplate engraver, he set up a small laboratory in Via Cornina, near Bardi’s shop, that at the time was located on the corner of Via de’Serpi, in Piazza San Gaetano.
Just how Leopoldo got his photographic training is hard to determine, but it is probable that in part it was in the Florentine community, aware of the experiments in techniques and communication being carried on by those who were already working in the capital of the Grand Duchy, personalities such as Bernoud, Semplicini, Veraci, Philpot, but later also in journeys to Venice and Rome where Domenico Bresolin and James Anderson and others who were already well known were working, and who in turn had introduced Florence to their works.
In 1854, Leopoldo’s brothers Giuseppe (1836 – 1890) and Romualdo (1830 – 1890) joined his activity and together founded the firm “Fratelli Alinari”. Giuseppe acted as photographer like his brother Leopoldo, while Romualdo was in charge of administration.
In the following years, the atelier became very famous in Italy, Europe and America thanks to the ability of the three brothers. City views, landscapes, reproductions of a great number of art masterpieces were among the most appreciated works of the firm.
In 1863, the three brothers decided to move the atelier to a bigger place due to the increasing amount of work. They purchased a palace located in Via Nazionale and used it as their workshop and home. When Florence became the capital of Italy (1865 – 1871) their work increased so much that they had to hire dozens of assistants.
In1865 Leopoldo Alinari died suddenly and his brothers continue to run the atelier. In the same year Vittorio Alinari, son of Leopoldo, became an apprentice at the atelier.
Giuseppe and Romualdo opened branches in many cities like Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice and took over ateliers in Paris, Brussels, Dresden and Marseille.
When Giuseppe and Romualdo died in 1890 Vittorio became the only owner of the firm. Vittorio, with the help of his son Carlo, increased the printing of guidebooks and art manuals, he organized many art contests and photographic surveys of Italy.
After the death of Carlo (1910) Vittorio progressively decreased the atelier’s activity and in 1920
a publishing house, the “Istituto di Edizioni Artistiche”, which also later acquired the archives of Giacoma Brogi in Florence and James Anderson in Rome, absorbed the studio.
Today the Alinari studio continues to preserve Italy's cultural treasures through occasional publication of some of the more than one hundred thousand photographs from the Alinari holding.
It is a leader in Photographic Publishing, and its Art Printworks is the only one in the world still using the artisan technique of collotype on paper and on silver plate from photographic images. Alinari is an irreplaceable point of reference for preserving, cataloguing, circulating and handing down, through the photograph, the history, society, art and culture of Italy and Europe.
