Fake News? – Fantasy Antiquities
Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints IV
Colloquium on 14 February 2025 in Munich
The academy project “Antiquitatum Thesaurus: Antiquities in European Visual Sources from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, hosted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (thesaurus.bbaw.de/en), and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich (zikg.eu) are organizing a series of colloquia in 2023–2025 on the topic “Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Drawings and Prints in the Early Modern Period.” The significance of drawings and prints for ideas, research, and the circulation of knowledge about ancient artifacts, architecture, and images in Europe and neighboring areas from the late Middle Ages to the advent of photography in the mid-19th century will be examined.
The three previous colloquia were dedicated to the topics of the 'unrepresentable' properties of the depicted objects and the documentation of various states and contexts of ancient objects from their discovery to their presentation in collection catalogues. The fourth and final event will examine the problem of invented or imitated antiquities.
In fact, all types of objects from the arts and crafts of antiquity – aegyptiaca, coins and gems, statuettes and statues, objects of everyday culture from jewellery to weapons and much more – were reproduced as real artefacts and/or in graphic illustrations on all kinds of different occasions over the centuries following antiquity. The father of modern ‘forgeries’ is undoubtedly Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778), who knew how to create new objects (‘capricci’) from numerous ancient spolia, which were highly sought after, in particular by northern European collectors. But this is not about him.
In addition to the physical ‘fakes’ on the marketplace of the antiquities trade, their pictorial representations or even antiquities ‘invented’ solely on paper often played a decisive role in the dissemination of a partially distorted, tendentious or ‘false’ idea of past cultures and their materiality.
Starting from the counterfeit imitations of the early modern period, our colloquium is interested in a very broad spectrum of ‘fantastic’ antiquities or ‘forgeries’ of antiquities and their motivations.
The following aspects are of particular interest, but other suggestions are also welcome:
Solicited for the fourth colloquium are papers in English, French, German, or Italian, 20 minutes in length, ideally combining case study and larger perspective. Publication in extended form is planned.
Hotel and travel expenses (economy-class flight or train; 2 nights’ accommodation) will be reimbursed according to the Federal Law on Travel Expenses (BRKG).
Place & date: Munich, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, 14 February 2025.
Proposals (max. 400 words) can be submitted until 15 September 2024, together with a short CV (max. 150 words) to thesaurus(at)bbaw.de keyword “Episteme IV”.
Conceived by Antiquitatum Thesaurus (Ulrich Pfisterer, Cristina Ruggero, Timo Strauch)
Image credit:
Jean Jacques Boissard, VI. Pars antiquitatum romanarum sive IIII tomus inscriptionum & monumentorum quae Romae in saxis & marmoribus visuntur, Frankfurt am Main 1602, pl. 78 (Photo: UB Heidelberg)
Collectors, Artists, Scholars: Knowledge and Will in Collection Catalogs
Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints III
Friday, June 21, 2024 - 1 p.m.–7 p.m.
Room 07W04, Unter den Linden 8 (Academy wing of the Staatsbibliothek), 10117 Berlin
Admission is free. Registration is required.
Registration for on-site attendance:
https://www.bbaw.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltung-sammler-kuenstler-gelehrte
Link to online participation:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83480045667?pwd=M0JoSkQ0bGtqSlQ0RkZzcXdyV013QT09
The academy project “Antiquitatum Thesaurus: Antiquities in European Visual Sources from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, hosted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (thesaurus.bbaw.de), and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich (zikg.eu) are organizing a series of colloquia in 2023–2025 on the topic “Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Drawings and Prints in the Early Modern Period.” The significance of drawings and prints for ideas, research, and the circulation of knowledge about ancient artifacts, architecture, and images in Europe and neighboring areas from the late Middle Ages to the advent of photography in the mid-19th century will be examined.
The two previous events looked at the challenges of reproducing 'unrepresentable' qualities such as colour, size, material and time in the graphic media and examined how the various states and contexts of ancient objects in the broadest sense were captured and documented in images between their discovery and their 'final' display.
The third colloquium is now dedicated to the questions of form, purpose and meaning of images and illustrations in collection catalogs and the role of the people involved in their creation. The strategies and possibilities of visualising private and public collections and the different effects achieved by the resulting products will be discussed.
The fourth and final study day in the series, entitled "Fake News? – Fantasy Antiquities", will be address the problem of the authenticity of antiquities visualised in images.
Programme (PDF)
1 p.m.
Ulrich Pfisterer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich/ Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (ZIKG), Munich)
Introduction
1.15 p.m.
Cristina Ruggero (BBAW, Berlin), Elena Vaiani (ZIKG, Munich)
‚Portiuncula‘: Paul Petau (1568–1614), a Private Collection of Antiquities and the Origins of the Illustrated Catalogue
Wissenschaft und Kommerz Chair: Elisabeth Décultot (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
2 p.m.
Paweł Gołyźniak (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
A Scholarly Passion or Collector’s Madness? Philipp von Stosch, his Paper Museum of Engraved Gems and Winckelmann’s Catalogue (1760)
2.35 p.m.
Eleonora Pistis (Columbia University, New York)
Media Architectures: Antiquities from Museums to Printed Musea in the XVIII Century
3.10 p.m.
Charlotte Schreiter (LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn)
Sammlungskatalog und Preiscourant. Verkaufsanzeigen der Rostischen Kunsthandlung in Leipzig 1779-1794
Coffee break
Projekt und Wirklichkeit Chair: Arnold Nesselrath (Rome)
4.15 p.m.
Sabine Scherzinger (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
Anspruch und Wirklichkeit – Raymond Leplats „Recueil des marbres antiques […]“ als erster Katalog der Dresdner Antikensammlung?
4.50 p.m.
Ioana Măgureanu (National University of Arts, Bucharest)
Acquiring the Queen's Antiquities, Assuming Royal Authority, Displaying Antiquarian Erudition
Insiderwissen Chair: Timo Strauch (BBAW, Berlin)
5.25 p.m.
Sarah Carter (University of Chicago)
Insider Knowledge and Antiquarian Identity: Charles Townley’s Collection Catalogues
6 p.m.
Silvia Amadori (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich)
„Pornografische“ Druckgrafiken aus dem Archäologischen Museum von Neapel
6.35 p.m.
Closing discussion
Image credit:
Lorenz Beger, Numismatum Modernorum Cimeliarchii Regio-Electoralis Brandenburgici Sectio Prima …, Coloniæ Brandenburgicæ 1704, S. 1 (Photo: UB Heidelberg)
Collectors, Artists, Scholars: Knowledge and Will in Collection Catalogs
Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints III
Colloquium on June 21st, 2024 in Berlin
The academy project “Antiquitatum Thesaurus: Antiquities in European Visual Sources from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, hosted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (thesaurus.bbaw.de/en), and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich (zikg.eu) are organizing a series of colloquia in 2023–2025 on the topic “Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Drawings and Prints in the Early Modern Period.” The significance of drawings and prints for ideas, research, and the circulation of knowledge about ancient artifacts, architecture, and images in Europe and neighboring areas from the late Middle Ages to the advent of photography in the mid-19th century will be examined.
The two previous colloquia were dedicated to the topics of the ‘unrepresentable’ properties of the depicted objects and the documentation of different states and contexts of ancient artifacts. This third conference will explore the questions of form, purpose and meaning of images and illustrations in collection catalogs and the role of the people involved.
Collecting is one of the oldest human activities. The interest in gathering objects of varying artistic, scientific, historical, religious, idealistic and emotional value or antiquitates, realia, naturalia, and curiositates was initially documented primarily by written sources such as inventories, but since the 16th century there has been an increase in illustrated (drawn or printed) evidence of the passion for collecting.
Our colloquium questions possibilities and strategies to visualize a collection. Descriptions of private or public collections, Thesauri, Monumenta, Specimens, Recueils, Specula, Theatra mundi, Segmenta nobilium, Admiranda antiquitatum, Corpora and Commentaria are the most common titles of publications dedicated to the various types of collections of (antique) objects. The need to record their holdings in pictures, to give them a classificatory order, to supplement or interpret them descriptively with commentaries, grew particularly with the development of printmaking, while the drawn collection was usually the privilege of a few, mostly wealthy or educated personalities.
We would like to examine the illustrated collection catalogs and analyze the role of the collectors, artists and scholars involved in relation to the knowledge and intentions expressed in the collection catalogs. Furthermore, we are interested in different uses of these important visual sources and strive to gain new insights into the functions and impact of these catalogs on the art world.
Possible contributions can address the following aspects, but further suggestions are also welcome:
The fourth and final study day in the series (expected to take place in January 2025 on the occasion of a planned exhibition at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte) will be entitled “Fake-News? – Fantasy Antiquities” and will address the problem of the authenticity of the antiquities depicted.
Solicited for the second colloquium are papers in English, French, German, or Italian, 20 minutes in length, ideally combining case study and larger perspective. Publication in extended form is planned.
Travel and hotel expenses (economy-class flight or train; 2 nights’ accommodation) will be reimbursed according to the Federal Law on Travel Expenses (BRKG).
Place & date: Berlin, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, June 21st, 2024.
Proposals (max. 400 words) can be submitted until March 17th, 2024, together with a short CV (max. 150 words) to thesaurus(at)bbaw.de keyword “Episteme III”.
Conceived by Antiquitatum Thesaurus (Ulrich Pfisterer, Cristina Ruggero, Timo Strauch)
Image credit:
Lorenz Beger, Numismatum Modernorum Cimeliarchii Regio-Electoralis Brandenburgici Sectio Prima …, Coloniæ Brandenburgicæ 1704, p. 1 (Photo: UB Heidelberg)
Find and Display – Fragment and Whole
Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints II
Wednesday, 31 January 2024, 11 a.m.–7.15 p.m.
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Katharina-von-Bora-Str. 10, 80333 Munich, Room 242, 2nd floor
Admission is free. Registration is required.
Registration for on-site attendance:
antiquitatumthesaurus(at)zikg.eu
Link to online participation:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85659345839?pwd=UmFZYU0xN1NxMGJ1MjlQM054NXgvZz09
Meeting-ID: 856 5934 5839 | Password: 148258
The academy project "Antiquitatum Thesaurus" and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich are organizing a series of colloquia in 2023/24 on the topic "Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints." The significance of drawings and prints for ideas, research, and the circulation of knowledge about ancient artefacts, architecture, and images in Europe and neighbouring areas from the late Middle Ages to the advent of photography in the mid-19th century will be examined.
The second colloquium will explore how the various states and contexts of ancient objects, in the broadest sense, between their discovery and their ‘final’ display, were captured and documented in images. This concerns representations of diggings as well as of archaeological sites and the beginnings of excavation documentation as well as efforts to record fragmented find states and reconstructions.
The two remaining colloquia will focus on “Collectors, Artists, Scholars: Knowledge and Will in Collection Catalogs” and “Fake News? Fantasy Antiquities.”
Programme (PDF)
11 a.m. | Welcome and Introduction
11.15 a.m. | DOCUMENTATION
Chair: Arnold Nesselrath / Rome
11.15 a.m. | Francesco Benelli / Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna // “Che no sia tondo e che abia dello aovato”: Uffizi U1132A, a stratification of meanings and strategies within the Sangallo’s workshop
11.50 a.m. | Barbara Sielhorst / Ruhr-Universität Bochum // Pars pro toto. Zur visuellen Dokumentation des Palatins in Rom vom Beginn des 18. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts
12.25 p.m. | Alessia Zambon / UVSQ-University Paris-Saclay // Thomas Burgon’s excavations in Athens in 1813: Fieldwork and finds’ recording
- Break -
2 p.m. | RESTORATION – RECONSTRUCTION
Chair: Elena Vaiani / ZIKG München
2 p.m. | Elena Efimova / Lomonossow-Universität Moskau // Dessins des détails d’ordres: entre un livre de modèles et une collection antiquaire
2.35 p.m. | Lena Demary / Ruhr-Universität Bochum // Transparenz und Verschleierung – Ambivalenzen früher restauratorischer Dokumentationen in Katalogen antiker Bildwerke
3.10 p.m. | Annie Maloney / Oberlin College // Reconstructing the Fragments of Pietro Santi Bartoli’s Reproductive Corpus
3.45 p.m. | Koenraad Vos / University of Cambridge // Restorations of ancient sculpture as epistemic images. Filippo Aurelio Visconti on the benefits of intervention
- Break -
4.30 p.m. | DISPLAY
Chair: Henri de Riedmatten / Université de Genève
4.30 p.m. | Anna Degler / Freie Universität Berlin // Auf unsicherem Grund. Der sog. Torso Belvedere und die Körperdiskurse in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts
5.05 p.m. | Daniela Picchi / Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna // Giovanni Nardi and Ancient Egypt at the Medici Court
5.40 p.m. | Sophie Kleveman / Georg-August-Universität Göttingen // Kommissarisches Antikenwissen und die Regulation des Antikenmarktes im 17. Jahrhundert
6.15 p.m. | Henri de Riedmatten / Université de Genève // Summary and closing discussion
Image credit:
Francesco Moratti, Egyptian Queen or Princess, watercolour and gouache, Paris, BnF, Dép. des Estampes et de Photogrqphie, FB-19-PET FOL, Fol. 1 (Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF)
On the initiative of the Academy research project “Antiquitatum Thesaurus. Antiquities in European Visual Sources from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) and the Museo Nazionale Romano (MNR) have signed a cooperation agreement.
The aim is to research, catalogue and publish those objects that formed the original core of the Museo Kircheriano, the antiquities collection of Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), which was originally housed in the Collegio Romano and formed part of the MNR's collections from the very beginning.
Research work, involving museum staff and academy scholars, is already underway. For the Academy and the Museum, this means the continuation and intensification of an already existing international collaboration and an opportunity to improve knowledge and appreciation of the works exhibited and preserved in the Roman collections.
Find and Display – Fragment and Whole
Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints - II
Colloquium on January 31st, 2024 in Munich
The academy project “Antiquitatum Thesaurus: Antiquities in European Visual Sources from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, hosted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (thesaurus.bbaw.de), and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich (zikg.eu) are organizing a series of colloquia in 2023–2024 on the topic “Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Drawings and Prints in the Early Modern Period.”
The significance of drawings and prints for ideas, research, and the circulation of knowledge about ancient artifacts, architecture, and images in Europe and neighboring areas from the late Middle Ages to the advent of photography in the mid-19th century will be examined.
The second colloquium will explore how the various states and contexts of ancient objects, in the broadest sense, between their discovery and their ‘final’ display, were captured and documented in images. This concerns representations of diggings as well as of archaeological sites and the beginnings of excavation documentation as well as efforts to record fragmented find states and reconstructions. For ancient architecture (and certain sculptures), some of which have always been visible, the problem arises of how to deal with additions, alterations, missing parts, and how to evoke the original state. Which image media and image modes were chosen to face these challenges? Which aspects should be documented? And how do these antiquarian representations relate to other subject areas and visualization intentions?
Later study days will focus on “Fake News? Fantasy Antiquities” and “Collectors, Artists, Scholars: Knowledge and Will in Collection Catalogs.”
Solicited for the second colloquium are papers in English, French, German, or Italian, 20 minutes in length, ideally combining case study and larger perspective. Publication in extended form is planned.
Travel and hotel expenses (economy-class flight or train; 2 nights’ accommodation) will be reimbursed according to the Federal Law on Travel Expenses (BRKG).
Place & date: Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich, January 31st, 2024.
Proposals (max. 400 words) can be submitted until September 1st, 2023, together with a short CV (max. 150 words) to thesaurus(at)bbaw.de keyword “Episteme II”.
Conceived by Antiquitatum Thesaurus (Ulrich Pfisterer, Cristina Ruggero, Timo Strauch)
Image credit:
Francesco Moratti, Egyptian Queen or Princess, watercolour and gouache, Paris, BnF, Dép. des Estampes et de Photogrqphie, FB-19-PET FOL, fol. 1 (Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF)
The ‘Apelles-Problem’
Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints – I
Thursday, September 28, 2023 – 2 p.m.–7.30 p.m.
Room 07W04, Unter den Linden 8 (academy wing of the Staatsbibliothek), 10117 Berlin
Admission is free. Registration is required.
Registration for on-site attendance:
https://www.bbaw.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltung-apelles-problem
Link to online participation:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85425010993?pwd=SWdTeHN5d0dMdlZPSkFYcy8yekVIdz09
The academy project "Antiquitatum Thesaurus" and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich are organizing a series of colloquia in 2023/24 on the topic "Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints." The significance of drawings and prints for ideas, research, and the circulation of knowledge about ancient artefacts, architecture, and images in Europe and neighbouring areas from the late Middle Ages to the advent of photography in the mid-19th century will be examined. The first colloquium is devoted to the challenges of 'unrepresentable' properties in graphic media.
The following colloquia in the series address other aspects of the creation of images of antiquity: "Find and Display, Fragment and Whole"; “Fake News? Fantasy Antiquities”, and “Collectors, Artists, Scholars: Knowledge and Intention in Collection Catalogues.”
Programme (PDF)
2 p.m.
Ulrich Pfisterer (LMU Munich/ ZIKG, Munich), Cristina Ruggero (BBAW)
„Er malte auch das, was außerhalb des Bereichs der Malerei liegt“ – Grenzen und Möglichkeiten antiquarischer Illustrationen
Colour Chair: Arnold Nesselrath (Rome)
2.30 p.m.
Stefano de Bosio (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
A Complicated Couple. The Aldobrandini Wedding and its Early Transmedial Dissemination
3 p.m.
Elisabeth Oy-Marra (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
Die Episteme der Linie. Pietro Sante Bartolis Reduktion farbiger Wandmalerei in seinen Druckgrafiken und das disegno der Alten
Size Chair: Birte Rubach (TIB, Hannover)
3.30 p.m.
Ann-Kathrin Fischer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Bartolomeo Ammannatis Hercules Benavides und die Darstellung von Größe im Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae
4 p.m.
Angelika Marinovic (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
Vom Antikenzitat zum (fingierten) antiken Objekt: Zur Rezeption von Gemmen in italienischer Druckgrafik der ersten Hälfte des Cinquecento
coffe break
Material Chair: Ulrich Pfisterer
5 p.m.
Austėja Mackelaitė (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam)
Making Meaning Through Drawing: Hendrick Goltzius’s Studies of Ancient Sculptures in Rome
5.30 p.m.
Timo Strauch (BBAW)
Edle Steine und Metalle auf Papier. Beispiele aus dem sogenannten ‚Cabinet de Peiresc‘
Time Chair: Cristina Ruggero
6 p.m.
Christien Melzer (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz)
Anverwandelte Antike. Druckgraphik nach Maarten van Heemskerck
6.30 p.m.
Susan M. Dixon (La Salle University, Philadelphia)
Francesco Bianchini (1662–1729) and Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) on illustrating the past
Image credit:
Nicoletto da Modena: A poet at the tomb of Apelles, engraving, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. M28034,
© 2023 Museum of Fine Arts Boston
The 'Apelles-Problem'
Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Early Modern Drawings and Prints I
Colloquium on September 28–29, 2023, in Berlin
The academy project “Antiquitatum Thesaurus: Antiquities in European Visual Sources from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, hosted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (thesaurus.bbaw.de), and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich (zikg.eu) are organizing a series of colloquia in 2023-2024 on the topic “Visualizing Antiquity. On the Episteme of Drawings and Prints in the Early Modern Period.”
The significance of drawings and prints for ideas, research, and the circulation of knowledge about ancient artifacts, architecture, and images in Europe and neighboring areas from the late Middle Ages to the advent of photography in the mid-19th century will be examined.
The first colloquium inquires into a form of the ‘Apelles problem’: according to Pliny, the Greek painter knew how to depict “what lies outside the realm of painting.” Therefore, for the representation of ancient artifacts, the question is asked how in drawing and printmaking actually ‘unrepresentable’ qualities of the depicted object – such as color, material properties, proportions, three-dimensionality, and the like – can nevertheless be conveyed? In terms of colorfulness, for example, colored hand drawings have an advantage over prints, but they do not have the same range. Is an attached scale key sufficient to clarify dimensions? And what possibilities do new techniques of representation open up? Or can accompanying texts, commentaries, annotations, source citations, etc. do justice to the difficulties of depicting the above-mentioned characteristics, or help to classify and interpret the artifact depicted? These are some of the central questions posed; suggestions beyond these are welcome.
The following colloquia in the series will address other aspects of the creation of images of antiquity: “Find and Display, Fragment and Whole”; “Fake News? Fantasy Antiquities”, and “Collectors, Artists, Scholars: Knowledge and Intention in Collection Catalogs.”
Solicited for the first colloquium are papers in English, French, German, or Italian, 20 minutes in length, ideally combining case study and larger perspective. Publication in extended form is planned.
Travel and hotel expenses (economy-class flight or train; 2 nights’ accommodation) will be reimbursed according to the Federal Law on Travel Expenses (BRKG).
Place & time: Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, September 28–29, 2023.
Please submit your proposals (max. 400 words) until April 30, 2023, together with a short CV (max. 150 words) to thesaurus(at)bbaw.de.
Conceived by Antiquitatum Thesaurus (Ulrich Pfisterer, Cristina Ruggero, Timo Strauch)
Illustration: Hand-colored woodcut (https://db.antiquitatum-thesaurus.eu/object/1512961)
Giovanni Battista Casali: De profanis et sacris veteribus ritibus, Rome 1644, p. 67, detail (UB Heidelberg)
For our blog section, we are looking for writers who are interested in contributing essays written to show individual insights and expertise on a specific topic.
Blogs are a great way to generate fresh content, they are quick and easy to assimilate, thought provoking, able to generate academic discussion, to take stock of a situation, to give a precise answer to an open question, and much more. In addition, blogs offer the authors the opportunity to introduce themselves to the academic community and draw attention to their websites, academic interests, research fields, and possibly help to establish contacts for cooperation.
The blog contributors could cover one of the following topics but other proposals are welcome as well:
Some simple guidelines:
To better evaluate the blogs’ contents and coordinate their sequence on our website, we ask for short proposals first. If you are interested in providing a guest contribution for the Antiquitatum Thesaurus blog, please send us your application by completing the following submission form: blog proposal.
Please send your proposals to: thesaurus@bbaw.de.
Since 2 February 2023, the Antiquitatum Thesaurus online database has been available in open access. It provides access to over 10,000 records on ancient and non-ancient artefacts and their illustrations in early-modern prints and drawings.
Please note that the contents of the Thesaurus are constantly growing and may undergo changes. It is a work in progress.
Data collection began in July 2021 and has since been carried out continuously according to the project's modular work plan. At present, it is concentrating on Module 1 "Egypt — In Search for Origins". A continuously updated overview of the source works to be recorded, the current state of progress in each case and areas that have not yet been completed can be found here. Information on the criteria for data entry as well as the internal and external relationships of the database can be found here.
Searching and navigating the data holdings is done via a user-friendly and intuitive web interface, which is also under constant development. More information on the technologies used can be found here.
The decision to release the database at an early stage is based on the pursuit of transparency and enables the community to track the progress of source indexing and the technical evolution at any time.
In the spirit of this openness, we welcome questions, suggestions and corrections at any time. Please use the feedback link at the end of each record or write to us at thesaurus@bbaw.de
"Antiquitatum Thesaurus" im Semantic Web. Modellierung, Interoperabilität und Präsentation - ein Praxisbericht
Paper presented by Timo Strauch, Nils Hempel and Jonas Engelmann (BBAW, Berlin)
15 November 2022 | 16:00 c.t.
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Unter den Linden 8, room 07W04
10117 Berlin
Live broadcast via Zoom: see https://digiclass.bbaw.de/seminar.html
Egypt in Early-Modern Antiquarian Imagery
Digital Workshops on 5 May, 2 June and 7 July 2022
On the occasion of this year's anniversaries of important milestones in the recent reception of Egypt, the academy research project "Antiquitatum Thesaurus" devotes three digital workshops in the summer semester of 2022 to the perception of the land on the Nile in the early-modern period. The focus will be on various personal motivations of some of the protagonists, the antiquarian or scientific methods they used, and a broad spectrum of media in which the engagement with Egyptian or Egyptianizing artifacts and images was reflected from the 15th to the 18th century. In addition, current research projects present their perspectives on the reception of Egypt.
Programme (PDF)
5 May 2022 – 4 p.m.
Michail Chatzidakis (Berlin): (recording in the Academy's media archive)
Ad summam sui verticem pyramidalem in figuram vidimus ascendentes […] antiquissimum Phoenicibus caracteribus epigramma conspeximus. Bemerkungen zu den ägyptischen Reisen Ciriacos d’Ancona
Catharine Wallace (West Chester):
Pirro Ligorio and the Late Renaissance Memory of Egypt in Rome
Stefan Baumann (Trier):
Project Presentation: Early Egyptian Travel Accounts from Late Antiquity to Napoleon
2 June 2022 – 4 p.m. (recording in the Academy's media archive)
Maren Elisabeth Schwab (Kiel):
Herodots Ägypten im Interessenshorizont italienischer Antiquare
Alfred Grimm (München):
Osiris cum capite Accipitris. Zu einem Objekt aus der Bellori-Sammlung und dem Barberinischen „Osiris“
Florian Ebeling (München):
Project Presentation: Handwörterbuch zur Geschichte der Ägyptenrezeption
7 July 2022 – 4 p.m. (recording in the Academy's media archive)
Guillaume Sellier (Montréal):
Oldest Egyptian Artefacts in Canada: The Quebec Palace Intendant’s Amulets
Valentin Boyer (Paris):
„Sphinxomanie“ durch die Ikonographie ägyptisierender Exlibris
Nils Hempel, Timo Strauch (BBAW):
Project Presentation: Antiquitatum Thesaurus. Antiken in den europäischen Bildquellen des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts
Image Credit:
Egyptian Sculptures, in: Michel-François Dandré-Bardon: Costume des anciens peuples, Paris 1772, part 24, pl. IV (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich)
E. Décultot, A. Nesselrath, U. Pfisterer: Das Echo der Antike. Das neue Akademienvorhaben Antiquitatum Thesaurus, in: Jahresmagazin 2022 der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 50–55.
PDF (off-print)
The entire magazine is available for download from the BBAW website.
Egypt in Early-Modern Antiquarian Imagery
Digital Workshops on 5 May, 2 June and 7 July 2022 (PDF)
In 2022, Egyptology celebrates important historical events that number among the highlights in the exploration of the culture and civilization of the country by the Nile. In 1822, Jean-François Champollion succeeded in deciphering the hieroglyphics, the hieratic and the demotic scripts, by working primarily with the Rosetta Stone. In 1922, the British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.
The academy research project “Antiquitatum Thesaurus” would like to contribute to the international discourse and, in three half-day digital workshops in the summer semester of 2022 (5 May / 2 June / 7 July), draw attention to some central questions of the early-modern reception of Egypt, which preceded the events mentioned above.
How did contacts with the land of the pharaohs and their culture come about, and what image of it was conveyed? What role did aegyptiaca play in collections of antiquities, cabinets des curiosités or Wunderkammern? How were Egyptian or Egyptianising artefacts visually documented and discussed?
Before Napoleon’s great military expeditions and the subsequent scientific explorations of the country, when the number of travellers to the Levant was still manageable, the perception and understanding of Egypt far from the Nile had to rely primarily on easily portable objects. These had found their way to the other side of the Mediterranean at different times and along different routes. Finally, the study of ancient Greek and Roman authors, who transmitted their own mediated version of history and Egyptian culture, should not be underestimated.
Besides religious motivations, commercial and political activities or the desire to explore that lost or forgotten civilization, discoveries in Europe also stimulated further interest in Nilotic culture. Archaeological finds in Italy, France, Spain, German countries and Britain brought to light artefacts from the Roman imperial period. Through them people assimilated and adapted aspects of Egyptian religion, culture or aesthetics. They were collected together with artefacts from Egypt both as curiositates and as objects of study.
In the course of the early-modern period, a broad spectrum of antiquarian knowledge about Egypt was formed on the basis of these heterogeneous and today often not yet fully tangible foundations, and illustrated by an accompanying world of images.
The project “Antiquitatum Thesaurus” takes on the digital recording and indexing of antiquities in the graphic sources of the 17th and 18th centuries. It has begun this process with the subject area: “Egypt. On the Search of Origins”. Selected, representative illustrated printed works and drawing volumes dedicated to the material legacy of Egypt – or what was considered to be Egyptian – will be analysed. In addition to identifying the illustrated artefacts and architectural works, whether still preserved today or not, the project also aims to describe the methods of recording and conveying the mostly three-dimensional objects on paper, i.e. in a two-dimensional space. Furthermore, digital processing opens up possibilities for recognizing and illustrating spatial, temporal and personal chains within the transmission of knowledge and images across the widely scattered source material.
The subject areas of the three workshops include:
- The protagonists: A consideration of the circulation of artefacts through intermediaries, antiquarians and collectors as well as their reception and representation in drawings and printed works. Particular attention will be paid to how these figures were interconnected between c. 1600 and 1750.
- Multifaceted Egypt: How was the imagery or the idea of Pharaonic Egypt changed or complemented by small-scale artefacts such as amulets, jewellery and funerary objects alongside the familiar monumental evidence such as obelisks or sphinxes?
- The history of reception: What was the basis for the depictions of the many aegyptiaca in the graphic volumes of the time: direct observation or copies based on earlier publications? How exactly did the exchange of drawings and prints, descriptions etc. take place among the members of the European république des lettres?
We plan 20-minute talks in German or English. We kindly ask you to send an abstract relating to the aforementioned topics – alternative proposals are also welcome – of maximum 500 words in German, English, Italian or French including a short CV to: thesaurus(at)bbaw.de by 11 March 2022. Please indicate the language in which you would like to speak. An answer will be given by 18 March 2022.
Image Credit:
Egyptian Sculptures, in: Michel-François Dandré-Bardon: Costume des anciens peuples, Paris 1772, part 24, pl. IV (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich)
November 10, 2021, 8 p.m., online (recording in the Academy's media archive)
Antiquitatum Thesaurus. Antiken in den Wissensspeichern der Frühen Neuzeit und heute
PROGRAMME
Grußworte
Christoph Markschies (Akademiepräsident)
Tonio Sebastian Richter (Sprecher des Zentrums Grundlagenforschung Alte Welt | Akademiemitglied | Freie Universität Berlin)
Der Antiquitatum Thesaurus
Elisabeth Décultot (Projektleitung | Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
Arnold Nesselrath (Projektleitung | Rom | Berlin)
Ulrich Pfisterer (Projektleitung | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte)
Investigating Cassiano dal Pozzo's "Paper Museum": lights and shadows
Eloisa Dodero (Musei Capitolini, Rom)
Thesauri antiquitatum: storie e sfide
Elena Vaiani (Pisa)
Paris–Province (XVIIIe–XIXe siècle): à chacun son Antiquité?
Véronique Krings (Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès)
Antiquitatum Thesaurus – Fallstudie und digitale Strategie
Cristina Ruggero (BBAW)
Timo Strauch (BBAW)
Image Credit:
Anonymer Zeichner: Ägyptische Amulette (Cabinet de Peiresc, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, RESERVE FOL-AA-54, fol. 71r – Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF)
Auf ein Akademisches Viertel mit ... Timo Strauch (July 27, 2021, BBAW Media Centre)
Eine Geschichte der Schönheit (Johann Schloemann, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung 21.02.2021)