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Rare photographic prints in extra-large formats

The Briganti Photographic Archive houses a collection of photographs made with printing techniques dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries, a period when photography was spreading thanks to increasingly advanced methods. Among the works, an anthology of about three hundred shots in exceptional formats (450x300 mm and beyond) stands out, using techniques such as albumen paper, gelatin silver bromide, silver salts and carbon printing, the latter known for its ability to ensure the image's unalterability and create an "in relief" effect. In the 1880s, large-format photographs became highly sought after by scholars and collectors, as in the case of the photo of the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist (work held at the Cleveland Museum, Ohio), attributed to Botticelli and workshop, which still shows the overpaintings later removed during 20th-century restorations.