Album Marinali

This collection consists of 1,292 black and white photographs on fine glossy cardboard (18 x 24 cm), documenting the production of the Marinali workshop and other sculptors active in the Veneto in the late 17th and early 18th century. The collection was acquired by the Fondazione Cini from the Vicenza-based photographer Giorgio Di Natale in 1977, who expressed the wish that it be kept in a prestigious institution.

As revealed in a letter of 15 September 1977 to the director of the Institute of Art History, Rodolfo Pallucchini, Di Natale had conducted the photographic campaign on the Marinali workshop as part of his "wider-ranging plan to record all the beautiful objects surrounding us, as I am concerned about the damage to them, so often irreparable, caused by the so-called civilisation of consumption and mass-media; often with irreversible results. My aim is not to hoard a treasure for myself, but to prepare material to be entrusted to those who can preserve it for posterity and/or use it for the enjoyment of all art lovers."

The photographs, each with the photographer's stamp and the date 1976, entered the Foundation in twenty-one ring-binder albums, complete with captions and a small group of publications on the Marinali, used by Di Natale as a starting point for his campaign. The subsequent relocation of the material in standard folders respects the original order given to the images and has retained the captions and texts attached to the photographs.

The so-called "Marinalian photographic itinerary" documents the vast production of the Vicentine workshop founded by Francesco Marinali, a sculptor and carver, who moved from Bassano to Vicenza in the 1670s with his sons Orazio (1643-1720), Francesco (1647-1727 ) and Angelo (1654-1702), also talented sculptors. The renown achieved by the Marinali, and by Orazio in particular, prolonged beyond the mid-18th century through the work of their heir Giacomo Cassetti, is demonstrated by the growing number of orders and commissions also from outside Vicenza, as amply documented in the photographic collection. Covering the various areas of the Marinali's production, the collection includes images of sculptures made for the churches and palaces of Vicenza, but also for nearby villas: from the Villa La Rotonda to the vast cycles of Montegalda, Montegaldella, Trissino and for less well-known buildings such as the Villa Piovene at Castelgomberto, where they worked with various other sculptors. Di Natale also extended his documentation to Vicentine workshop's production for patrons in Treviso, Verona, Venice, and as far afield as Udine, Brescia, and Florence, where he photographed the statues in the garden of Harold Acton's Villa La Pietra. The collection also includes images of sculptures now in Italian and foreign museum collections, for which the photographer sometimes requested specific reproductions.

A highlight of the valuable material in the Marinali collection is the series of sheets from the so-called Album Marinali in the Bassano del Grappa Museo Civico, containing the drawings used as working tools in the Vicentine workshop, and a group of terracotta bozzetti from the Vicenza Musei Civici, used as preparatory models for larger statues. Lastly, the collection also contains photographic documentation on the production of various masters, from local Vicentine artists such as Albanese and Giovanni, Antonio and Tommaso Bonazza, up to Giusto Le Court (Josse de Corte), Enrico Merengo, Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, and other sculptors, now attributed works - in the most recent studies - previously assigned to the Marinali.

Corpus Gernsheim

The Institute of Art History Photo Library holds around 25,250 photographs of drawings made from 1937 onwards by the German art historian Walter Gernsheim, editor of the journal Corpus Photographicum of Drawings.

Although the first documented contacts between the Institute of Art History and Walter Gernsheim date back to 1954, it was only in 1958 that the Institute subscribed to the Corpus Photographicum of Drawings, a project that Gernsheim had created with assistance of his wife Jutta Lauke.

The collaboration with Gernsheim, established at the prompting of Alessandro Bettagno (1919-2004), then secretary of the Institute of Art History, consisted, on one hand, in facilitating his access to the main Venetian collections and, on the other, in sourcing useful materials to enrich the recently established Cini Photo Library. All of this was in line with the Institute's interests in graphic art and the first exhibitions of drawings at the Foundation. Inspired by the same interests, the German art historian wanted to offer an effective study resource consisting of photographic documentation of the drawings preserved in the collections of institutions, museums and libraries in Europe and America.

Since 1968, at the request of the then director of the Institute, Giuseppe Fiocco (1884-1971), work began "to save all the photographs of drawings by Venetian masters reproduced... in many years of valid work" through the purchase of the back numbers with funds allocated by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR).

In 1972 the subscription to the Corpus Photographicum was limited to photographs of Italian school drawings.

The collection kept in the Photo Library of the Institute of Art History brings together about 25,250 photographs, thus only a part, however significant, of the entire Corpus Photographicum of Drawings, which consists of approximately 175,000 images. The photographs (all black and white gelatin prints mounted on large cards) are topographically ordered in a specific section of the Photo Library.

The indices are very useful aids for consulting the material. They consist of typewritten lists stored in eleven numbered albums with several pieces of information, such as the current location and the measurements of the drawing reproduced, as well as an acronym for the media used by the artist. The album IX is devoted to back numbers.
The Institute of Art History Photo Library holds around 25,250 photographs of drawings made from 1937 onwards by the German art historian Walter Gernsheim, editor of the journal Corpus Photographicum of Drawings.

Corpus Papachatzidakis

Put together by the Greek photographer Pericles Papachatzidakis (1905-1990), this collection includes 4,552 positive prints that constitute unique documentation of the monumental heritage of Greece and Macedonia.

The original aim of the Institute of Art History to play a significant role in the study of Byzantine art and art of the Christian East - a role embodied by the illustrious art historian and expert Byzantine scholar Sergio Bettini (1905-1986) - led in the mid-1950s to the acquisition of a substantial photographic collection on the arts and architecture of Byzantine Greece, the result of extensive campaigns conducted by the Greek photographer Pericles Papachatzidakis.

Bettini had met Papachatzidakis during his many trips to Greece, which lasted until well into the war, as he pursued his interest in studying and collecting images as well as "exploring the province of the Byzantine Empire in an almost pioneering way". On Bettini's advice, Papachatzidakis was then contacted by the Institute in June 1955 and asked to supply an initial series of photographs on some of the most important Greek Byzantine monuments, including complete documentation of the mosaics of the monastery of Nea Moni on Chios. Throughout 1956, a dense correspondence documents the acquisition of other photographic series, which Papachatzidakis was assembling in response to requests from the Institute of Art History. The result was a total of 4,552 photographs.

The Papachatzidakis collection provides detailed exhaustive documentation of Byzantine art in the Greco-Macedonian area, with a special focus on the mosaic cycles of the so-called "linear-style Macedonian Classicism" (11th century), such as those in the monastery of the Dormition at Dafni, near Athens, the monastery of Hosios Loukas and the monastery of Nea Moni on the island of Chios. Other well-known historic monumental sites that he documented include Thessaloniki (frescoes and mosaics in the churches of the Holy Apostles, St Catherine, St Demetrios and St Sophia) and Mystras (views of the town and castle, and the churches of Afendiko, Peribleptos, Pantanassa and the Metropolis). Of particular note are the late Byzantine frescoes in the complexes of Mount Athos and Meteora in Thessaly.

Of the 4,552 positives, arranged in 78 envelopes according to their original topographical criterion, 294 (all devoted to documentation of the monuments in the city of Thessaloniki) were mounted on cards and placed in suitable filing cabinets. As part of the project to enhance the archives and the photographic collections of the Cini Photo Library, the digitalisation and cataloguing of the Papachatzidakis collection is currently underway: some of the material, i.e. the section on the Greek Byzantine monumental complexes of Dafni, Hosios, Loukas and Nea Moni, can be consulted online.

Fondo Abis

The Abis Collection consists of 1,572 photographs gathered by Mario (1924-2004) and Serafino Abis for the purpose of creating a dossier on the culture of Venetian villas in the Padua area. The collection also includes manuscript notes and bibliographic annotations concerning the featured villas.

Fondo Alfieri

The collection consists of photographs and slides used by Bruno Alfieri (1927-2008) for art books published by the company founded by his father Vittorio in 1938. In addition to reproductions of works by Venetian artists, such as Pietro Longhi, Bernardo Bellotto, and Battista Zelotti, used for the publication of monographs, there are also illustrations for the book Cabinet d'Amateur (Scarpa Sonnino, 1995).

Fondo Berenson

The Institute of Art History Photo Library holds a series of copies of photographs held in the collections of Bernard Berenson at the Villa I Tatti, Settignano (Florence): 28,750 photographs, all black and white gelatin prints (10 x 10.5 cm) collected in 50 boxes, sorted alphabetically according to artist.

The collection was created thanks to a special agreement signed with the Villa I Tatti following the serious damage to the photographic archive of the Fondazione Cini during the flood of 4 November 1966.

Fondo Bettini

The archive primarily contains a collection of photographs, a fascinating cameo of Byzantine art, consisting of 350 negatives personally taken by the art historian Sergio Bettini (1905-1986) during his many trips to Istanbul and the former provinces of the Empire of Constantinople from 1934 to 1940, financed by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. As evidenced by a letter addressed to Professor Anti, dated 31 August 1955, and now in the archive of the Fondazione Cini Institute of Art History, this sponsorship was not only for the purpose of funding the photographic and film campaigns conducted by Bettini with his Rolleiflex and Bolex super 8 cameras. He was also asked to contact professional photographers, who over the years would enrich the photographic collections of the Institute of Art History, as in the case of Pericles Papachatzidakis.

The photographic collection mainly documents the architectural and monumental heritage of Istanbul and Greece, with a large number of urban views, and the islands of the Aegean and Albania. For two years (1931-33), at the request of the Regia Legazione d'Italia in Tirana, Bettini was responsible for carrying out research ahead of the creation of a photographic collection of Venetian monuments in Albania.

The negatives, which provided the same number of positives mounted on paper and inserted in the topographic section of the archive, show the wear and tear of time and rather advanced forms of decay. Stored in paper envelopes and inventoried, they are kept in special drawers reserved for negatives in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

The Bettini photographic collection is completed by seven extraordinary photo albums, entirely devoted to the monumental heritage of Istanbul, containing a total of 197 photographs by the painter and photographer W. Sender, dated 1925-1928. A further two smaller albums compiled in the same years with 12 photographs feature the basilica of Hagia Sophia and the church of the Holy Saviour in Chora (Kariye Camii,) in Istanbul, respectively.

The Bettini Archive includes manuscript annotations and typed drafts of his publications, while a documentary section is linked to Sergio Bettini's studies and contacts with numerous scholars and collaborators at the Fondazione Cini Institute of Art History, and principally the first director, his teacher Giuseppe Fiocco.

Fondo Cipriani

This archive of photographic and documentary material was put together by Nicolò Cipriani (Ravenna, 1892 - Florence, 1968), a photographer and archivist, who collaborated for over thirty years with the Photographic Cabinet of the Florentine Arts Superintendency. Cipriani was a passionate collector of photographs, a connoisseur of the Italian and, especially, Tuscan landscape, who had a keen interest in art. During his career in Florence, he conducted many photographic campaigns for numerous scholars, such as Aby Warburg, Raimond Van Marle, Giuseppe Fiocco, Ugo Ojetti, Adolfo Venturi, Roberto Longhi, Luigi Coletti and Bernard Berenson. He collaborated with several publishing houses, including the Touring Club, Rizzoli and Mondadori and documented some major art events in the city, such as the exhibition on Italian painting of the 17th and 18th centuries held at the Palazzo Pitti in 1922, or the historical exhibition on the illustrated book of 1927 (as demonstrated by his inventories). In addition to his work at the Photographs Cabinet, Cipriani took numerous photos for private customers and conducted various photo reports on the Tuscan countryside. His productions range from studio shots of works of art belonging to Florentine and other collectors to the exciting panoramas of the Tuscan landscape in its entirety, contrasted by chiaroscuro effects, as in his snapshots of the beach of Viareggio shown at The Photographic Exhibition of the Tuscan Landscape (1927). Among the images we also find some snapshots taken during his time in the ranks of the Italian Royal Army during the Great War: small format positive monochromes that document the lives of soldiers at the front. The collection acquired by the Institute of Art History comprises 151.147 photographs in a variety of formats and made using various printing techniques. They document different types of art (paintings, sculptures, but also jewellery, ceramics, lace, weapons, etc.), as part of Cipriani's original project, entitled the Fototeca Italiana (Italian Photo Library), aimed at the complete mapping of Italian art. Along with his own photographs, Cipriani gathered notes, newspaper cuttings and typescript lists referring to the objects and collections photographed. The acquisition of the collection took place in two stages. The first stage, in 1958, saw the arrival of folders containing photographs and related notes, newspaper cuttings, postcards and information about the artists and the media used. In the second stage, after 1960, photographic material was brought to San Giorgio packed in crates but without having been organised, due to a serious illness that affected Cipriani at the end of his career. Following its reorganisation, the photographic collection is now divided into three parts. From the 1950s to the 1990s, an initial part of the collection (about 5,000 photographs) was glued on paper cards (24 x 30 cm) and can now be consulted in the Monographic and Topographical sections of the Photo Library. The second part, the core of the collection, consists of photographic and documentary materials related to the Arts. Kept in files, they are divided into several series created by Cipriani himself: Architects and Sculptors, Drawings, Engravers, Painters, and a large sequence of Minor Arts. Each series is ordered by century, artist or school. The third part, consisting of over 300 boxes, documents individual locations in alphabetical order. The richest part of the photographs and paper documents (articles, newspaper cuttings, guides, etc.) concerns Tuscany but there are also forays into neighbouring regions such as Umbria and the Marches. Bibliography: Paesaggi toscani nelle immagini della Fototeca Italiana, edited by M. Tamassia, Florence 2009 M. Tamassia, "La documentazione delle sculture di Michelangelo Buonarroti nel Gabinetto Fotografico della Soprintendenza Fiorentina", in Ri-conoscere Michelangelo, edited by M. Maffioli and S. Bietoletti, Florence 2014, pp. 78-89.

Fondo De Logu

A teacher and then director at the Accademia di Belli Arti in Venice from 1945 onwards, Giuseppe De Logu (Catania, 1898 - Venice, 1971) also contributed many articles to the art history journals Emporium, L'Arte and Dedalo. A student of Adolfo Venturi, right from the beginning of his career, he showed an interest in 17th-century art with the publication of the books La pittura italiana del Seicento (1931) and Scultura italiana del Seicento e del Settecento (1932). He published several monographs, including Tiziano (1935) and Tintoretto (1964), the result of his meticulous archival research. Much of his thinking is summed up in Natura morta italiana, a book that he began work on in the late 1920s. Published in 1962, the book charts the features of so-called "minor painting".

Presented to the Institute in 1994, the archive consists of a main section associated with Natura morta italiana, bringing together the materials used for the publication of the book. It contains notes, drafts and numerous photographs used for the publication and also for other studies: these are fundamental resources for an understanding of De Logu's working method.

The inventory includes a section on Caravaggio containing the materials used for the publication of a book in 1962 with numerous details of the artist's works, plus De Logu's correspondence with his publisher.

The De Logu Archive also has a series of autograph appraisals, correspondence with prominent intellectuals, such as Licisco Magagnato and Antonio Morassi, gallery owners and private collectors.
Lastly, a section entitled "Studies, notes and offprints" contains documentation for a book on minor Tuscan and Emilian painters that was never published.

Fondo Fiocco

The archive documents the work of Giuseppe Fiocco (1884-1971), the first director of the Fondazione Cini Institute of Art History. The archive consists of his own archive from his time as director (1954-1971), proofs of his writings, handouts and degree dissertations for which he was supervisor, correspondences with various scholars from 1908 to 1971, postcards and expertises. Lastly, also included is the scholar's photo library, consisting of over 65,000 reproductions of Veneto works of art.

Fondo Gardner

The photographic collection of Elizabeth E. Gardner (1915-1985), curator in the Department of European Painting at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, consists of 60 monochromatic photographs, mostly from the Alinari and Anderson studios. The reproductions are of works of art by the Ferrara School, primarily Cosmè Tura, Ercole de' Roberti and Galasso Galassi. The collection entered the archives of the Institute of Art History in 2011 at the same time as the acquisition of the American scholar's book collection.

Fondo Geiger

The collection consists of around a thousand photographs, mostly concerning Alessandro Magnasco, a painter Benno Geiger (1882-1965) studied at length.

Fondo Ivanoff

The rich photographic collection bequeathed to the Foundation by Nicola Ivanoff (1901-1977) contains documentary and photographic material used by the Russian art historian for his studies on 17th- and 18th-century Venetian painting.

The archive consists of documentary and photographic material used by the Russian art historian Nicola Ivanoff (1901-1977) for his studies on 17th- and 18th-century Venetian painting.

Fondo Knox

The archive assembled by art historian George Knox preserves documentary and photographic material relating to his studies on Venetian painting, and especially the work of Tiepolo.

Fondo Land

Donated by Professor Norman E. Land in 2008, the collection consists of 462 photographs featuring Veneto paintings and the drawings of Giambattista Tiepolo and sons.

Fondo Lieberman

The collection comprises 1,274 photographs of sculptures, paintings and architecture taken by Ralph Liebermann, a photographer and historian, in Venice, Florence and Rome, plus 185 digital images of the Venetian church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli. The collection was donated to the Institute of Art History between 1999 and 2004 by the American organisation Save Venice Inc.

Fondo Manzelli

The photographic archive belonging to the scholar Mario Manzelli was acquired by the Institute of Art History as part of the project entitled Archives of Vedutismo launched by the then director Alessandro Bettagno in 1999. The collection includes 400 photographs of various formats used by Manzelli in his studies of Michele Marieschi and Antonio Joli.

Fondo Markham Schulz

The collection was purchased by the Institute of Art History during the work of the National Committee for the Celebrations of the 550th Anniversary of the Birth of Tullio Lombardo (2005-2008), in order to increase the photographic documentation in the photo library on the works of the Venetian sculptor. The photographs taken by photographer Mario Polesel were commissioned by the expert on Venetian sculpture Anne Markham Schulz for her studies on the Lombardo workshop.

Fully digitalised and accessible through the Atlante delle Sculture di Tullio Lombardo, the archive consists of 530 black and white photographs arranged within the filing cabinets according to the geographical location of the works.

Among the reproductions are a series of photographs of the reliefs of the so-called Camerini d'Alabastro, now in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, a wide-ranging photographic campaign on the Badoer Giustinian chapel in the church of San Francesco della Vigna, Venice, the subject of in-depth investigations by the scholar, and lastly close-up pictures of the sculptures on funerary monuments made by the workshop of the Lombardo, now kept together in the basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.

Fondo Milkovich

The collection consists of 140 monochrome images gathered by the Croatian scholar Michael Milkovich, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg (Florida), as part of his research on the 17th-century painter Sebastiano Ricci.

Fondo Mucchi

The collection consists of radiographic plates of paintings in major Italian and European art collections. The radiographs were made in the 1960s and ‘70s by the Milanese radiologist Ludovico Mucchi (1904-1983), son of the painter and art historian Anton Maria Mucchi.

When Ludovico Mucchi died in 1983, his wife Costanza Piccolomini donated the radiographs left in their Florentine home to the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, because of the nature of Ludovico Mucchi's main study interests (18th-century Venetian painting) and his relationship with the Venetian institution.

The collection consists of 934 radiographic plates, 869 inverse images, 559 prints of the radiographic images and 22 photographs of 14th to 16th-century paintings from the Venetian, Tuscan and Lombard schools and 18th-century paintings by Pietro Longhi, Canaletto, Bellotto, Francesco Guardi and Michele Marieschi analysed by Mucchi. Each photograph is kept in an envelope with all the documents related to the painting in question. The works have been chronologically divided into two groups: 14th-16th century and 18th century. Within the two chronological groups the works have been divded by author and arranged alphabetically. The photographic collection includes Mucchi's handwritten notes and radiograph reports, inserted in the envelopes containing the radiographic materials.

The collection held by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini is one of the key parts of Mucchi's legacy, whose full significance can only be grasped by considering the overall project of the "International Radiographic Archive" based on new systematic criteria - a pioneering undertaking pursued by the Milanese radiologist throughout his life.

Fondo Mullaly

The collection donated by Terence Frederick Stanley Mullaly, a scholar and Daily Telegraph art critic until 1987, comprises 750 photographs documenting paintings and drawings from the Venetian and Italian schools housed in British private collections in the 1960s and ‘70s. An integral part of the collection is the correspondence between the British critic and Giuseppe Fiocco concerning the London antiquarian market.

Fondo Ojetti

Consisting of 1,470 photographs of monuments and works of art in the Veneto region, the archive was put together by Ugo Ojetti (1871-1946), as president of the Supreme Command Commission for the protection of monuments and works of art during the 1915-1918 war. It was donated to the Fondazione Giorgio Cini by his wife Fernanda in 1957.

In a letter of 26 March 1957, sent to Giuseppe Fiocco, director of the Institute of Art History, Fernanda Ojetti wrote: "I have several hundreds of photographs of Venezia Giulia, Trentino and the Veneto collected by my husband during the Great War. There are some beautiful, intact photographs and complete documentation, for example, of the basilica and the museum of Aquileia, etc. I also have a large number of photographs concerning war damage, the protection of monuments, etc. All the photographs are ordered and very well preserved. I believe that for a library and an institution that collects everything pertaining to the Veneto, the photographs of damaged monuments, devasted towns and the defences raised, etc. during the war of 1915-1918 might be of interest."

Unfortunately, only 541 photographs of the collection kept at the Institute of Art History can be consulted. This is only a part of the entire corpus, the rest having been irremediably damaged during the Venice flood of 1966.

The photographs, all black and white gelatin or albumen prints of various sizes, have been arranged topographically thus respecting the original order.

Fondo palazzi veneziani

The collection devoted to Venetian palaces consists of around 4,000 images of the palaces of Venice present in the Institute of Art History Digital Archive. It is the result of recent photographic campaigns carried out by the Institute to document the frescoes and stuccoes made in historic Venetian houses from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Fondo Pallucchini

The archive was assembled by Rodolfo Pallucchini (1908 - 1989), director of the Institute of Art History from 1972 to 1989 and considered the greatest 20th-century Veneto art historian.

Professor of the history of modern art, first in Bologna (1950) and then in Padua (1956-1979), where his long teaching career gave rise to a prestigious school, in 1972 he was appointed director of the Fondazione Cini Institute of Art, which eventually received his rich photo library in 1989.

His collection of over 47,000 photographs provides extraordinary documentation on at least five centuries of Venetian painting and other art works. The scholar's greatest resource, it also offers the opportunity to understand his working method and attributional criteria. The photos are kept in over two hundred boxes, arranged chronologically and alphabetically by artist, sometimes with autograph notes on the back stating the location of the work, its provenance and alternative attributions.
The around 50,000 reproductions are often accompanied by relevant correspondence, useful in reconstructing the scholar's connoisseurship. Much of the material preserved in the collection was the documentary basis for his seminal monographic studies on Venetian painting of the 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th centuries and all his most important publications.

The archive also includes handwritten annotations and proofs for his publications, as well as a considerable number of photographs of 20th-century works from the period when he was involved in organising the Venice Biennale (1948-1954).

As part of the activities promoted by the Regional Committee for the Celebrations of the Centenary of the Birth of Rodolfo Pallucchini, the collection was digitised and catalogued: at present some of the materials can be consulted online, such as the photographic documentation for art of the 14th and 17th centuries.

Fondo Sandberg Vavalà

The archive comprises photographic and documentary materials collected and ordered by the scholar Evelyn Sandberg Vavalà (1888-1961) for her studies on Italian painting from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The photographic collection consists of over 25,000 positives organised according to subject and type, including notable documentation on Mediaeval mosaics and frescoes, Romanesque sculpture and important areas of the applied arts such as cassoni, ivories and jewellery.

There are also documentary materials of various kinds, such as newspaper cuttings, printed reproductions, notes, and bibliographic index cards written by the English scholar, divided into 116 folders.

Sandberg Vavalà's collection of photographs (from Brogi, Alinari and Anderson), still intact on her death, was later divided up when one section of it was added to Federico Zeri's photographic collection.

The history of the archive at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini can be reconstructed by starting from a letter dated 11 July 1961, sent from Sandberg Vavalà's Florentine home. After a few laconic humorous remarks about her ailing health, she expressed her desire to sell her private archive and photographic collections to the Institute of Art History, for which she had been commissioned to compile the entries for the "Index of Venetian Painting, a project that ended with her death on 8 September 1961. On 7 October the same year, thirteen crates arrived on the island of San Giorgio. They contained the rich archive of notes, cuttings and photographs, collected for study and research purposes, and ordered in monographic and thematic files. Prof. Ulrich Middeldorf was then sent to Venice to see to the bureaucratic and legal procedures as well as to the payments to Sandberg Vavalà's son, John Kendrew.

Fondo Scrinzi

Acquired in 1958, the collection consists of 1,710 positive photographic prints gathered by the scholar Alessandro Scrinzi (1894-1954), a Superintendent at the Civic Museum of Padua and Director of the Civic Museums and Cultural Institutes of Brescia. The photographs in the collection document works of art by the Veneto and Lombard schools held in Brescian and Paduan collections, as well as some archaeological excavations and examples of architecture.

Fondo Valcanover

The collection consists of photographs of Venetian painting and sculpture from the 14th to the 18 centuries, used by the scholar Francesco Valcanover for his numerous publications.

Fondo Van Marle - Ventura

The archive contains a collection of about 30,000 photographs assembled by the Dutch art historian Raimond Van Marle (1887-1936), and a small section of notes and autograph annotations largely related to the publication of the volumes of his book The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. The original archive was expanded by adding items that belonged to Eugenio Ventura (1887-1949), a Florentine antiquarian who bought Van Marle's photographic collection after his death. The archive thus also includes photographic and documentary materials, such as letters and valuations related to Ventura's business as an art dealer.

Fondo Viancini

Acquired in 1998, the around 4,000 photographs in the collection were assembled by Ettore Viancini during his career as an antique dealer in Venice. They include monochrome and colour positives, and negatives and prints of Venetian works of art found on the antiquarian market: some photos have annotations and valuations on the back written by art historians, such as Rodolfo Pallucchini.

Fondo Voltolina

The collection that belonged to the Venetian notary Gino Voltolina documents well-heads (vere da pozze) in the territories of Venice and the Serenissima (Albania, Croatia and Slovenia), as well as in some other European countries (France, Britain, Germany and Hungary). The reproductions were made by Voltolina for the publication of his book Le antiche vere da pozzo veneziane (1970).

Fondo Zava

Acquired by the Institute of Art History in 2007, the collection belonging to Franca Zava (1920-2009), professor of art at the University of Padua, contains all the documentary material produced by the scholar, such as proofs, transcriptions, and notes related to her research on Venetian painting; correspondence with antique dealers, collectors and other art historians; and, lastly, a collection of 1,400 photographs used as illustrations in publications, including a monograph on Giambattista Pittoni (1979), and a book on the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (1965).