id:			439496
accession number:	2021.42
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2021.42
updated:		2024-03-26 02:02:17.002000

Palace of the Circus at Chicen-Itza (bas relief of tigers), c. 1860. Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay (French, 1828–1915). Albumen print from collodion negative; image: 32.8 x 42.4 cm (12 15/16 x 16 11/16 in.); paper: 36.2 x 45 cm (14 1/4 x 17 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2021.42

title:				Palace of the Circus at Chicen-Itza (bas relief of tigers)
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 1860
creation date earliest:		1855
creation date latest:		1865
current location:		
creditline:			Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	France
technique:	albumen print from collodion negative
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - French 19th Century
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay (French, 1828–1915)  - artist
Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay French, 1828-1915

Désiré Charnay was an explorer almost from the beginning. Born in Fleurieux, he finished his education at the Lycée Charlemagne in Paris before traveling to Germany and Britain, and in 1850 moved to New Orleans to teach. After reading John Lloyd Stephens' popular accounts of his travels in Central America, published a decade before, Charnay returned to France to plan a trip of his own. In 1857 he traveled from France first to Boston, through the United States, and finally to Mexico. From 1858–60 he visited Mitla, Palenque, Chichen-Itza, and Uxmal. He photographed the sites, but was unable to conduct further archaeological research.
	Upon his return to France, Charnay published a portfolio of nearly 50 views; a smaller edition appeared shortly thereafter. His animated account of his travels was accompanied by an essay on the monuments themselves by architectural historian Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Through this success, he was appointed photographer and writer to an official expedition to Madagascar in 1863. He later returned to Mexico and in 1875 traveled as a journalist to Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. He was sent by the French government to Java and Australia (1878-79). In the early 1880s he finally made the full-fledged archaeological expedition to the Yucatan Peninsula that he had dreamed of some 30 years before. In later years he returned again to Mexico, visited the United States, where he saw the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, and made a voyage to Yemen.
	Charnay's photographs, made with negatives of both paper and glass, combined a reverence for the past with the artistic and documentary possibilities of the new medium of photography. They are valued today for both their archaeological and their aesthetic content. T.W.F.
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measurements: Image: 32.8 x 42.4 cm (12 15/16 x 16 11/16 in.); Paper: 36.2 x 45 cm (14 1/4 x 17 11/16 in.)
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support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	Imprinted on paper label adhered to recto, lower left: "Charnay, photogr. Pl. 34. Gide, éditeur, Paris./PALAIS DU CIRQUE, A CHICHEN-ITZA/Bas-relief des Tigres"
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg, Scarsdale, NY
	date: ?-2021
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: June 7, 2021
	footnotes: 	
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2021.42/2021.42_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2021.42/2021.42_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2021.42/2021.42_full.tif