Fotografia e Storia dell’arte
all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
nell’Ottocento: il caso di Giuseppe
Mongeri
Nicoletta Leonardi
From the mid-nineteenth century, photography became a key tool for observing, comparing, and
classifying works of art, shaping art history as an academic discipline. Focusing on the Accademia di Belle
Arti di Brera and the figure of Giuseppe Mongeri, this essay examines how the medium was used in teaching
— fostering comparison between works and monuments, building visual repertoires, and systematically
organising images as study tools. Drawing on the photographic albums of the Legato Mongeri (Mongeri
Bequest), Mongeri’s manuals, and archival sources, it situates the Milanese case within a broader European
network of practices involving photography in art-historical teaching at art academies