As one of the most acclaimed graduates of the famed Düsseldorf School of Photography, Thomas Struth has created an indelible body of work whose contribution to the field of contemporary photography is perhaps best captured in his Museums series, of which the current lot is an example. Depicting one of the enigmatic Vatican rooms beautifully adorned by the Renaissance luminary Raphael, the current lot depicts an intimate cluster of museum goers whose scale and composition ironically resonate with the fresco scene unfolding above them. In so doing, Struth cleverly compresses the centuries dividing the fresco from its spectators into a single, hybrid visual. Furthermore, the massive scale of the print imbues it with the monumental air that had been traditionally relegated to public murals, much like the one presented in Struth’s photograph. The result is a composition that softens the lines dividing past from present and subject from object. As the viewers in the Stanze di Raffaello become objects of study under Struth’s lens, viewers of the photograph inadvertently echo the composition, becoming unwitting participants in the seemingly endless nature of the work.