Clarence Kennedy
American, 1892–1972
Hands From a Relief of the Pietà in the Tabernacle by Desiderio da Settignano
INV-2065
Clarence Kennedy
American, 1892–1972c. 1929
Hands From a Relief of the Pietà in the Tabernacle by Desiderio da Settignano
Clarence Kennedy American, 1892–1972 →gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) prphotographic process
Date
c. 1929
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 24.3 × 16.5 cm (9 5/8 × 6 1/2 in.); Mount: 45.5 × 30.6 cm (17 15/16 × 12 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Photography and Media Purchase Fund
A self-described “scholar-photographer,” Clarence Kennedy learned photography in the 1920s in order to document the classical sculptures he was studying as a professor of art history. His stated goal was not to interpret the work anew but rather to bring out the character of the sculptor’s forms. In order to make this detail of the hand of Saint John, he employed a large-format camera in the natural light of a Florentine church—all supported on scaffolding that he built himself. Hugh Edwards acquired six photographs by Kennedy and seems to have included them in the exhibition Photography before 1914, to show the influence of early photography on work made in subsequent years.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Profile of an Unknown Lady, Attributed to Desiderio da Settignano
Clarence Kennedy American, 1892–1972
Head of Young Saint John, Attributed to Donatello
Clarence Kennedy American, 1892–1972
Leg and Hoof of a Bronze Horse Found at the Same Time as the Charioteer at Delphi
Clarence Kennedy American, 1892–1972
Angel's head from the frieze of the Tabernacle by Desiderio da Settignano
Clarence Kennedy American, 1892–1972