La documentazione per il progetto: la fotografia al Museo di Napoli nei cantieri di restauro (1975-1981)

At the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, the restoration and reorganization of the collections, as well as the relations between the museum institution and the photographic production for the documentation of the works carried out there, are reconstructed through the observation of the photographs in the Historical and other iconographic archives of the museum institution. The period investigated, between the 1970s and 1980s, follows the end of the major completion works of the building: after the construction of the rooms on the terraces of the eastern courtyard, and the construction of the so-called Braccio Nuovo, the interventions, in these years, will focus mainly on the consolidation and adaptation works of the rooms, according to the different museographic needs that will emerge. In tracing the main stages, the contribution proposes a focus on the practice of photographic documentation at restoration sites in the Museum’s context, which is compared with the modality of analysis made possible by photography. The photographic collections of the MANN archives, which, through a process of sedimentation, have been stratified according to the various and diversified phases of the institution’s life, represent a heritage of considerable interest for the documentary value of the preserved images, capable of giving a contribution to critical knowledge for the Naples Museum.