Pittoresque Comes from the Italian word Pittore. Observations from the Voyage pittoresque

Abstract

The monumental, encyclopaedic production by the abbot of Saint-Non on the South of Italy is probably the first “real-life” photograph of this important part of the country.
The vastness of the field of investigation, the accuracy of the surveys, the technical and figurative consistency in describing the visited places – features that reveal the presence of a broad cultural, publishing “project” – render the Voyage pittoresque ou Description des Royaumes de Naples et de Sicile a very original work that will leave lasting traces on Italian and European culture.
Its main, distinctive feature is that picturesque “angle” that constitutes a sort of filter, a tuning key between the places and the Author’s “filming tools” (literary and graphic). From this point of view, the Voyage was, in its time, an extraordinary example of the development of that aesthetic and moral category that is precisely the Picturesque.
This leads to another aspect, not to be overlooked, concerning the specific character of places, or of their identity. It is then somewhat interesting to understand if, and to what extent, that identity is directly established by the places depicted or if, instead, it is their “narration” – visual and literary –that gives them that powerful and sometimes indelible mythical aura that in many ways, even today, we ourselves, in particular circumstances, seem to recognize in them.