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:

• First genre-specific or heterogeneous collection catalogs in Europe.
• The role of collectors in the art world and their influence on the construction of collection catalogs.
• The relationship between artists and collectors in relation to the presentation of artworks in catalogs.
• The importance of scholars and experts in the creation of collection catalogs and their involvement in the creative process.
• The range of visualization of collections as a whole and of the individual collection object; formats, techniques, plate vs. text illustration, etc.
• The possibilities of comparative representation, displaying different sizes, quantities, formal characteristics, thematic focuses, material values, etc.

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)}

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}

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)}