Calabria in the Voyage Pittoresque of Jean-Claude Richard de Saint-Non: reality and interpretation from the journals, drawings and travel sketches

Abstract

The result of a revision process on the part of the publisher of Voyage Picturesque , regarding the original drawings and texts produced by participants of the expedition, is a collection of views of landscapes, cities and architecture of Calabria, which were prepared during the expedition organized in 1778 by the Abbot of Saint-Non and led by Dominique Vivant-Denon. A comparison of the Voyage with the original travel diary of Vivant Denon, published in another edition, and with a series of sketches and preparatory drawings by Louis-Jean Desprez and Claude-Louis Chatelet, offers the opportunity to verify how those unexplored and largely unknown places were perceived and then interpreted, to analyse what was the real perception of ancient times in the Calabrian territory, still largely unexplored and very difficult to travel through, and, eventually, to also verify how those same places are still recognizable in their original structures, through the filter of the brave travelers who crossed Calabria at the end of the eighteenth century.