Devotion of the Catholic clergy in Rome, April 30, 1849, from Souvenirs d’Italie: Expédition de Rome

Art Historical Context

Denis Auguste Marie Raffet’s 1858 lithograph captures a poignant moment from the French expedition to Rome in 1849. Created nearly a decade after the events it depicts, the print belongs to the series *Souvenirs d’Italie: Expédition de Rome*, which commemorates the French military intervention that restored Pope Pius IX to power following the short-lived Roman Republic. The scene focuses on the Catholic clergy’s steadfast devotion on April 30, 1849, highlighting the religious fervor and civic tension that marked this turbulent period in Italian history. Raffet, renowned for his detailed lithographs of military and historical subjects, employs the medium’s capacity for fine tonal gradations and expressive line work to convey both drama and intimacy. Printed in black on buff wove paper, the image allows viewers to sense the crowded Roman setting and the clergy’s collective resolve. As part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings collection, the work exemplifies how 19th-century lithography served as both an artistic and documentary tool, bringing distant conflicts and moments of faith to a broad European audience.

About the Artist

Denis Auguste Marie Raffet · 1804–1860

Denis Auguste Marie Raffet (1804–1860) was born in Paris and displayed an early aptitude for drawing, though his initial apprenticeship was to a wood turner. He pursued art through evening classes and, at age eighteen, joined the workshop of Cabanel as a porcelain painter, where he met Rudor, who taught him lithography. Raffet studied under Nicolas Toussaint Charlet from 1824 to 1829 and completed...