Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — Milan Dome
33,066.10 ¥
Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II photographed from below its central octagonal dome — the iron and glass roof structure and the Risorgimento allegorical mosaics looking upward in full architectural splendour.
Description
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — completed in 1877, designed by Giuseppe Mengoni — is the world’s oldest active shopping mall and Italy’s most architecturally distinguished covered arcade. Its central octagon, beneath a 47-metre iron-and-glass dome, is decorated with mosaic allegories of the four Italian provinces unified in the Risorgimento: Turin, Florence, Rome, and Milan — each portrayed as a classical figure with their city’s heraldic symbols. The photograph looking directly upward into the dome — the zenith view — requires a position directly at the octagon’s centre and a rectilinear ultra-wide-angle lens to capture the complete dome circumference without the barrel distortion of a fisheye. This photograph was made at 7am during the Galleria’s public hours before the boutiques open, when foot traffic is minimal enough to allow the tripod positioning necessary for the zenith composition. The morning light entering through the glass dome from the east creates a directional quality within the otherwise diffused interior.
