Bas-relief 'Libations of griffons' in terra cotta

The bas-relief portrays two griffons, mythological creatures with the bodies of lions and the heads and wings of eagles, engaged in a ritual act of pouring libations. This imagery draws from ancient Mediterranean traditions, where such scenes symbolized offerings to deities or the dead. The composition reflects classical motifs adapted in 19th-century archaeological reproductions, emphasizing ceremonial order and symbolic continuity rather than narrative drama.

Laffon’s photograph captures the relief with careful attention to texture and tonal gradation, using the wet collodion process to render fine details of the terra-cotta surface. The lighting is even and controlled, minimizing shadows to prioritize clarity over artistic interpretation. This approach aligns with the museum’s goal of creating accurate visual records, distinguishing it from the expressive tendencies of contemporary photographic movements like Impressionism.

Louise Laffon, one of the earliest female members of Le Société Française de la Photographie, documented objects from the Musée Napoléon III’s Campana Collection in the early 1860s. Her work was recognized for its precision and was acquired by the V&A through commercial channels in 1864. The photograph entered the museum’s collection alongside other documentary images, forming part of its pioneering archive of photographic reproductions of artworks.

During the 1860s, the V&A, then known as the South Kensington Museum, was establishing itself as a center for applied arts education. Under Henry Cole’s leadership, photography was embraced not as fine art but as a practical medium for study and reproduction. Laffon’s images were integrated into the National Art Library’s holdings, serving as reference material for students and curators navigating the expanding global corpus of antiquities.

Laffon’s photograph of the griffon relief exemplifies the early institutional use of photography as an archival and pedagogical tool. Her contribution, though long overlooked, underscores the role of women in shaping museum practices during photography’s formative years. The image remains part of the V&A’s historical collection, preserving both the artifact it documents and the method by which it was made accessible to a wider scholarly audience.