Antonio Morassi life and method in the mirror of his Photo Archive. Rethinking Art-Historical Photographic collections. The making of Italian fototeche*
Federica Veratelli
The Fototeca-Archivio Morassi (Ca’ Foscari Universty of Venice), is a rare photo archive. It contains several reproductions of works of art, collected, during his life, by Antonio Morassi (1893 – 1976) an art historian who played different roles; apparently active as “monument man” during the Second World War, he was involved in the international art market of Venetian art, as testified by his numerous expertises (especially of the Guardi family) preserved together with letters, notebooks, auctions catalogues and photos richly annotated with vivid comments on their back. According with a project of cataloguing and digitalization of this Archive, the paper aims to investigate its potentialities through the practice of collecting photos and the methodology of an art historian and “compulsive” collector of views of Venice in the 20th century.