Artwork

Cathedral, Santiago, Spain, Portico de la Gloria, Sculpture on the South wall

Cathedral, Santiago, Spain, Portico de la Gloria, Sculpture on the South wall is a photographic photography by the Impressionist artist Charles Thurston Thompson. It dates from 1867 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. This black‑and‑white photograph, taken in 1867, records the south‑wall Portico de la Gloria of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.

About this work

This photo shows the Portico de la Gloria on the south wall of Santiago Cathedral in Spain. Taken in 1867, it’s a black-and-white image by Charles Thurston Thompson.

Thompson worked as the Victoria and Albert Museum’s first official photographer from 1856 to 1868. He made these pictures while traveling in Spain and Portugal for the museum.

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Overview

This black‑and‑white photograph, taken in 1867, records the south‑wall Portico de la Gloria of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain. The image is part of a series produced by Charles Thurston Thompson, who served as the Victoria and Albert Museum’s inaugural official photographer from 1856 until his death in 1868.

Subject & Meaning

The composition captures the elaborate Romanesque portal, renowned for its intricate stone sculpture depicting biblical figures and allegorical scenes. By documenting this architectural element, the photograph provides a visual reference for the iconography and decorative program of one of Spain’s most celebrated medieval cathedrals.

Technique & Style

Thompson employed the wet‑collodion process, the dominant photographic method of the mid‑19th century, producing a sharply detailed negative that was printed on albumen paper. The resulting image emphasizes contrast and texture, rendering the stone carvings with a clarity suited to scholarly study.

History & Provenance

Four copies of this volume remain in the V&A’s collection, alongside loose plates that include images absent from the bound edition.

The photographs were created during Thompson’s field mission to Spain and Portugal on behalf of the museum. Initially housed in the National Art Library, they were sold to the public from a museum stall and later assembled into a bound volume published by the Arundel Society under the Science and Art Department’s authority. Four copies of this volume remain in the V&A’s collection, alongside loose plates that include images absent from the bound edition.

Context

Thompson’s work formed part of a broader Victorian effort to catalogue European artistic heritage through photography. The images served as reference material for artists, designers, and scholars, and were distributed to national art schools, reinforcing the educational mission of the V&A and its predecessor institutions.