[Hiram Powers's sculpture of The Greek Slave]

Unidentified · 1848-1849

Many artists were skeptical of photography, but Powers embraced this new technology , recognizing that it would allow him to share images of his sculptures with patrons across the globe. His immobile. luminous, white marble sculptures were ideal for daguerreotypes because this early form of photography requied very long exposure times. A daguerreotype is made by exposing a light-sensitive copper plate directly before the object being recorded and does not produce a photographic negative. The resulting image, which is one-of-a-kind, captures its subject in reverse. The head of The Greek Slave turns towards the figure's right in this image rather than to its left, as it does in the sculpture. This daguerreotype was likely made in Powers' studio in Florence and is the only known image of the fourth marble version of The Greek Slave, which Powers shipped in 1849 to a patron in England; it may have been destroyed during World War II.