Accession Number
1994/2.32.5

Title
Colonnade de l'église de la Nativité

Artist(s)
Felix Bonfils

Artist Nationality
French (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
circa 1867-1885

Medium & Support
albumen print on paper

Dimensions
10 15/16 in x 14 in (27.78 cm x 35.56 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Margaret and Howard Bond

Subject matter
This photograph shows the interior of the nave of the Church of the Nativity in an approximately symmetrical, single-point perspective. Two colonnades flank either side of the large chamber, while the wooden trusses of the roof seem almost otherworldly as the hover above the scene. The signs of disuse are everywhere, from the corroded stone on the Greco-Roman-era columns, to the wrapped chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. One figure sits along the far wall, his back up against what may have once been a large portal, now boarded up. The faint suggestion of an additional figure appears between two columns in the right background. This image is one of hundreds of photographs made throughout Bonfils' career which purport to document various landscapes, cityscapes, and people of the eastern Mediterranean. 

Physical Description
Interior view of a mostly deserted basilica, lined on both sides by rows of columns. A figure sits on the ground with his back against a wall made of wooden slats. 

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
churches (buildings)
colonnades
historic structures
interior views
naves
travel photography