Guglielmo Matthiae’s photographic collection stands out among those Federico Zeri acquired and incorporated within his personal archive. It is today largely consultable online via the Foundation databank. The 5,000 photographs comprising it are recognizable for a series of hand-written notes on the back or special editing marks and signs of wear and tear, all of which proved central to a newly completed research project. In studying the format of the materials, one realises how Matthiae’s archive differed in principle from Zeri’s style of taxonomic classification. It was arranged by year of study and publication which reflects Matthiae’s own critical approach, something that transpires when one examines his scientific output in parallel with his efforts to sort the collection: he tended to proceed by association, note tying up with note.
Besides phototypes documenting Italian-school artworks, especially Roman and Abruzzese paintings and mosaics, one finds photographic evidence of Matthiae’s militant supervision of postwar restoration operations in Latium, together with images reflecting his interest in eastern Mediterranean art. Originally these were in all likelihood continuously juxtaposed with prints showing central Italian scenes, but Zeri divided them up into various sections, some in the Thematic Icon Nuclei folders, but above all in the series Archaeology and early Medieval Art.
Many of these photographic objects show reproductions of plates from books that likewise found their way into the Zeri Foundation library, or postcards such as those documenting Cappadocian rupestrian churches. Both such kinds of material were ‘reworked’ by Matthiae who kept a number of copies of the new images achieved by rephotographing the original positive, while varying its contrast, angle and print size
There are, however, some more valuable phototypes capable of dialoguing with the older Muñoz collection materials. These Zeri likewise sorted into the same sections, cross-referenced according to documented works and names of photographer. One such case is the series of photographs by Kariye Camii: here are preserved both the albumens from the 1892 Sebah&Joaillier campaign (formerly belonging to Muñoz), and some gelatins by Matthiae where the captions have been altered and the objects represented are blocked out (acting upon either the negative or a re-photograph of the positive), the aim being to isolate them from the surrounds. Such reproductions may have been commericalised by the Sebah&Joaillier studio by way of teaching aids; or put to the same use by public institutions like the Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte in Rome with which Matthiae always made a point of maintaining friendly relations.
Among other contacts dating from a later stage in Matthiae’s career there are those with professionals fully versed in the Greek world. These spawned some rarer materials: prints by the Athenian photographer Pericles Papahadjidakis encountered via the famous Greek Byzantine expert, Manolis Chatzidakis, a benchmark contact for Matthiae; the precious positives produced by Thessalonian Georgios Lykides, which proved fundamental in documenting some lost contexts such as the Serres Metropolis; and lastly the photographic series emerging from campaigns promoted by the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, which cover the most important mural painting cycles housed within Cypriot churches.
One major Matthiae legacy is his pioneering interest in artwork conservation and restoring. This emerges when one studies the photographic material he used for his publications. Whether dealing with the massive Nea Moni mosaic cycle on Chios, or Roman mosaics, or the mural paintings of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and at Grottaferrata, Matthiae delved deeply into such aspects. A glance at the photographic campaigns in the collection that are connected with these writings reveals that a great many prints contain notes accurately distinguishing original sections from those bearing traces of ancient or more recent restoration of a more or less philological nature.
Such notes appended to positives in Matthiae’s hand undoubtedly provide the most stimulating source of prompts for new avenues of research awaiting anyone consulting the online catalogue or analogically sifting this rich store of materials.