The Origins of Exploration: Visions and Interpretations of an Iconographic Journey

This essay introduces the four volumes of the contemporary Voyage pittoresque, establishing their multiple relations with the work of the same name, published by the Abbé Saint-Non in 1781-1786 and the extraordinary graphic repertoire produced by the artists sent by the Abbé to the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. The first part of this essay focuses on the protagonists of the eighteenth century expedition and on the character of their activity in the light of recent graphic and documentary discoveries. The second part of the essay analyses each contemporary volume as an integral part of the larger work, directly connected to the 2015 conference dedicated to the critical overview of the sites of Southern Italy featured in the Voyage of Saint-Non. The first two volumes of the present publication are made up of a collective series of essays that develop the conclusions of the conference, regarding, respectively, the sections dedicated to the separate geographic regions and the final round table discussions. The following two volumes, of monographic character, are dedicated to Calabria. The region, which thanks to the iconography fixed by the artists of Saint-Non appeared for the first time in the European Grand Tour imaginary. The third volume offers a chronological examination of the region before and after Saint-Non’s publication, while the fourth volume systematically analyse the context of the sites which were represented by Saint-Non’s artists.