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How do we depict the fragmentary remains of the past? What suffices to represent a site or individual object? In their encounter with the remains of antiquity, European writers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were most concerned with, sought out, and recorded those objects that they believed held aesthetic value. These objects served as markers of taste and distinction for Europe’s elites, either in their suitability for inclusion in private collections or as inspiration for new art that evoked the classical past. In the last two centuries, with the emergence of the professional archaeologist, new agendas opened up that focused on the antique fragment. Today, the kinds of data that archaeologists deem worthy of inclusion in a standard archaeological report have diversified and multiplied with the availability of new analytic techniques. Objects of specifically aesthetic interest must share time with other site data—for example, the different stratigraphic layers of soil deposits. There is the (often explicitly stated) aim of capturing all the available data from a site, no matter how apparently trivial. This has become all the more important for archaeologists with the relatively recent realization (or emphasis on the realization) that they can never repeat the excavation of a site and that discarded data cannot be recovered. Once lost, data is lost forever. Yet no matter how meticulous an observer he or she aims to be, the archaeologist must still make decisions about what does or does not merit recording and portraying in the final publication. The visual examples in this exhibition, chosen from texts in the Art & Architecture Library’s Locked Stack collection, illustrate the field’s evolving approach to representing the past’s fragmentary remains. Although the exhibition casts light on the fragment’s transformation from art piece or aesthetic ruin to a more ascetic archaeological object, it does not map a linear narrative of the development of a “true and correct archaeology.” Several of the oldest texts here display an almost unparalleled concern for technical accuracy. As a whole, the books collected reveal a number of influences on representational form, especially the interests and agendas of professional archaeologists compared and contrasted with the expectations and requirements of other audiences. Curation/Text: David Platt Design/Installation: Anna Fishaut |
Exhibition Checklist:
First Case:
 [1]
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[1] Les ruines de Pompei Charles François Mazois Paris, F. Didot, 1824-38 DG70 .P7 M33 FF V.1 -4 ARTLCKL [2] The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial Rupert Bruce-Mitford ; with contributions by Paul Ashbee ... [et al.] London : Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1975- DA155 .B783 F V.1 -3 ARTLCKM |
Second Case:
 [3]
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[3] Les antiquitiés d'Athènes et de l'Attique James Stuart and Nicholas Revett Paris : Librairie Centrale d'Architecture, 1881 NA280 .S93 F ARTLCKL [4] Disegni de le ruine di Roma e come anticamente erono Facsimile of sixteenth-century text by Etienne Du Pérac Milano : A. Pizzi, [1963] DG805 .D8 1963 ARTLCKS [5] The Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca ... William Gell London : Printed by J. Wright ... for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme..., 1807 DF901 .I8 G3 F ARTLCKS [6] Gvida ragionata per le antichita e per le cvriosita natvrali di Pozzvoli e de lvoghi circonvicini Gaetano D'Ancora Naples, Onofrio Zambraia, 1792 DG70 .P9 D36 ARTLCKS [7] Itinerario istruttivo da Roma a Napoli Mariano Vasi Napoli, Tipo. di Porcelli, 1821 DG843 .V3 ARTLCKS |
Third Case:
 [11]
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[8] Antiquités d'Herculanum, ou Les plus belles peintures antiques, et les marbres, bronzes, meubles, etc. etc. trouvés dans les excavations d'Herculanum, Stabia et Pompeïa Sylvain Maréchal and François-Anne David Paris, F.A. David, 1780-1803 DG70.H5 M28 V.1-9 1781 ARTLCKS [9] Ercolano; i nuovi scavi (1927-1958) Amedeo Mauiri [Roma] Istituto poligrafico dello Stato, Libreria della Stato, [1958- DG70.H5 M25 F V.1 ARTLCKM [10] Pompei alla luce degli scavi nuovi di Via dell'Abbondanza (anni 1910-1923) Vittorio Spinazzola Roma, Libreria della Stato, 1953 N5771 .S66 F V.1-2 ARTLCKL [11] Pompei restaurato Author unknown [Naples? : s.n., 18--?] DG70 .P7 P666 1800Z ARTLCKS |
Fourth Case:
 [14]
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[12] A Collection of Antique Vases, Altars, Pateræ, Tripods, Candelabra, Sarcophagi, &c. from Various Museums and Collections Henry Moses [London] H. G. Bohn [pref. 1814] N5615 .M72 ARTLCKS [13] Outlines from the Figures and Compositions upon the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Vases of the Late Sir William Hamilton; with Engraved Borders William Hamilton and Thomas Kirk London, W. Miller, 1804 NK4624 .H3 ARTLCKS [14] The Palace of Minos; a Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos Arthur Evans London, Macmillan and co.,limited, 1921-35 DF221.C8 E75 V.1-4 1921-35 ARTLCKS [15] The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial Rupert Bruce-Mitford ; with contributions by Paul Ashbee ... [et al.] London : Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1975- DA155 .B783 F V.1 -3 ARTLCKM |
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