Medieval Art through the Camera Lens: The Photography of Arthur Kingsley Porter and Lucy Wallace Porter

Abstract

The American medievalist Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883–1933), author of such important texts as Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads (1923) and Spanish Romanesque Sculpture (1928), has long figured in the annals of art history as a ground-breaking scholar-photographer. Critical study of Porter's personal photographic archive and unpublished primary sources shows that this paradigmatic vision requires substantial modification. Lucy Wallace Porter (1876–1962), who became the medievalist's wife in 1912, was the chief photographer of the two from 1919 onwards. She made significant contributions to her husband's scholarship, alone producing more than two-thirds of the photographs published in Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads, which amounted to over 1500 prints. Our picture of Porter the scholar becomes very different if we realize that he often saw Romanesque sculpture through the eyes of his photographer wife. Moreover, all subsequent users of Porter's landmark publications have perceived Romanesque sculpture through her eyes as well. In addition to examining the holdings, history, and use of Porter's picture library, this article analyzes previously unpublished photographs that afford new vistas onto the couple's lives, imaginations, and camera work. It also explores the fascinating story of Lucy Porter's eye- and mind-training, proposing that she deserves recognition as one of the most influential women photographers in the field of art history during the twentieth century.