Augustan Bridge at Narni

This view represents a mature phase in the history of photography when both the technique of the large glass-plate negative and the mass production of the albumen print had been mastered. Pompeo Molins produced photographs for the tourist trade at a time when the "Grand Tour" of Europe, with Italy as the centerpiece, was more popular than ever. In his Augustan Bridge at Narni, the massive ruins of the Roman monument combine with their reflection and a tangle of vegetation to form an impressive gateway through which an expanse of tranquil river leads to the tower of a medieval bridge. The flow of time and persistence of culture through the centuries is captured as a photographic souvenir for the nineteenth-century tourist.