Monuments and texts : antiquarianism and the beauty of antiquity

Author

Lolla, Maria Grazia

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Art history. 2002, Num. 4, Vol. 25, 431-449, 556

ISSN

0141-6790

Abstract (en)

However widely and routinely practised, the publication of monuments revealed substantial divisions within the world of antiquarianism. Antiquaries were faced with the choice of either textualizing monuments - turning monuments from visual or tactile objects into reading material - or attempting to reproduce their materiality - even if the monument was a text. The paper analyzes Johann Joachim Winckelmann's Monumenti antichi inediti (1767) as a significant example of the former and the discussion concerning the publication of Domesday book that took place in the rooms of the London Society of Antiquaries in 1768 as a compelling example of the latter. Juxtaposed to one another, Monumenti antichi inediti and the projected facsimile of the Domesday Book provide mutually revealing accounts of the aesthetic and intellectual complexities of 18th-c. antiquarian practice. Where Winckelmann patently sought to rid monuments of their materiality in an effort, perhaps, to nobiliate antiquarianism - while nevertheless keeping it in a suitably ancillary position to literature - the fellows of the Society of Antiquaries chose the facsimile as the vehicle of preservation and transmission best suited to conveying their admiration of texts as material objects, indeed, as non-representational art. [abridged]

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 1400-1800
• Antiquarianism
• Beauty (concept)
• 1700-1800
• Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, 1717-1768
• Germany
• Domesday Book
• Society of Antiquaries of London||London (GBR)
• Facsimiles
• Monumenti antichi inediti
• Ancient [art]
• Reception
• Art theory
• Text
• Great Britain
• Aesthetics

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 1400-1800
• Antiquarianisme
• Beau, Le
• 1700-1800
• Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, 1717-1768
• Allemagne
• Domesday-Book
• Society of Antiquaries of London||London (GBR)
• Fac-similé
• Monumenti antichi inediti
• Antique (art)
• Réception
• Théorie de l'art
• Texte
• Grande-Bretagne
• Esthétique

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier20021001-00134351

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