[Departure for the huntTomb of Khan of Khiva]

Art Historical Context

Luigi Pesce’s “Departure for the Hunt, Tomb of Khan of Khiva” offers a rare mid-nineteenth-century glimpse of Central Asian life. Created in the 1840s–60s as a salted paper print, the photograph depicts riders and horses gathered near an ancient tomb set against rugged mountains. Pesce, an Italian officer and early photographer active in Persia and surrounding regions, used the camera to document landscapes and customs that were little known to European audiences at the time. Salted paper prints were among the first photographic processes capable of rendering fine detail in both shadow and highlight. Their matte surface and subtle tonal range lent the image a soft, almost painterly quality, bridging the gap between traditional printmaking and the emerging art of photography. The presence of horses and mountainous terrain underscores the practical realities of travel and hunting in this terrain, while the tomb itself hints at the region’s rich Islamic architectural heritage. Today the work resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection as a gift of Charles K. and Irma B. Wilkinson. It stands as both a historical record and an artistic achievement, illustrating how photography quickly became a powerful tool for cultural exploration and visual storytelling.

About the Artist

Luigi Pesce · 1818–1891

**Luigi Pesce (1828–1864)** was an Italian colonel and pioneering amateur photographer from Naples in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, whose work captured some of the earliest images of Iran's ancient monuments and 19th-century life. Arriving in Persia in 1848 during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, Pesce was tasked with training Iranian infantry units, a mission that positioned him ideally t...