Bas-relief of a geni and a lyre in terra cotta

The original relief was carved in terra‑cotta, a fired clay medium that allows fine detailing of surface texture. The photograph captures the work’s shallow depth and subtle tonal variations, rendering the relief’s three‑dimensional quality on a two‑dimensional plane through careful lighting and exposure.

The photograph was produced by Louise Laffon, a French photographer active in the mid‑19th century and one of the first women admitted to the Société Française de la Photographie. In 1864 the V&A acquired a set of 500 of Laffon’s images of objects from the Campana Collection, purchased through the agent Monsieur E. Cappe, and incorporated them into its National Art Library holdings.

At the time, the museum’s founding director, Henry Cole, promoted photography as a means to broaden visual access for artists, scholars, and museum staff. Laffon’s work, alongside that of other female photographers such as Isabel Agnes Cowper, supported this educational mission by documenting artworks that were otherwise difficult to study directly.

The inclusion of Laffon’s images in the V&A’s collection highlights the early, often overlooked contributions of women to museum photography. The bas‑relief photograph remains a reference point for scholars examining the intersection of photographic documentation and the preservation of classical decorative arts.