The Place of the Antique in Early Modern Europe

A scholar's desk, a warlord's castle, a pope's altar, the mouth of a volcano: in the minds of early modern Europeans, all evoked memories of ancient times, from Egyptian pharaohs to Roman emperors. The essays in this catalogue explore the influence of antiquity on a broad spectrum of artistic production in Europe, from the 16th through 18th centuries. They include investigations of proto-scientific imagery, Ovidian myth, allegorical devices, the papal banquet, and the growing importance of Greece to understandings of the ancient world. Together, these essays reveal much about the continual remaking of the antique in the visual culture of Europe.