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monument. But the reader is surprised by the
person to whom it is dedicated: The person re-
membered here is none other than d’Hancarville
himself, which is even more surprising consid-
ering he was still very much alive when this vol-
ume came out and went on wandering this earth
for thirty more years.28
The intention of the author becomes clearer
on reading the preface accompanying his paper
monument, where he comments at length on
this self-burial. His fictive tomb monument,
d’Hancarville writes, is not meant as a memor-
ial for the remembrance of the author but, on
the contrary, it represents a symbolic break from
his old ideas and writings. D’Hancarville wants,
quite literally, to bury his old self. The third vol-
ume of the Antiquités is therefore conceived as
a critique of the volumes that had the misfortune
to precede this one.29 Instead of continuing this
old way of thinking, he claims to have developed
a ‘new science’ – a science nouvelle. The reader
should regard d’Hancarville’s previous works and
opinions as dead, as if a man who’s dead for a fair-
ly long time wrote them.30 I wish to argue that the last comment is
directed against one specific man who died in
fact not so long ago, Johann Joachim Winckel-
mann, who was some kind of guiding spirit for
the first two volumes of the Antiquités.31 Winck-
elmann’s theory of art history is overturned in
the third volume of the Antiquités; the crucial
trait of d’Hancarville’s science nouvelle is that he
describes art history in a way that is radically
different to the cyclical narrative of birth, rise,
blossom and decay which Winckelmann put for-
ward.
Instead of describing the downfall of an-
cient art, d’Hancarville boldly claims that it
never ceased to exist. Even the present is con-
nected to the remotest past by a secret influ-
ence.32 Somewhat in the vein of Aby Warburg,33
d’Hancarville states that primeval symbols sur-
vive to the present.34 From the most beautiful
sculptures of Greece to modern Christian art-
works, they all contain un reste de l’ancienne
manière de représenter.35 Be they the classical stat-
ues of the Dioskuroi and the three Graces, or
the Christian cross, or the saints and their attrib-
hans christian hönes
266
28 On d’Hancarville’s biography, see F. Haskell, The Baron d’Hancarville: An adventurer and art historian in eigh-
teenth-century Europe, in: Oxford, China and Italy. Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton on His Eightienth
Birthday (ed. E. Chaney / N. Ritchie), London 1984, p. 177–191.
29 d’Hancarville, Antiquités (cit. n. 25), vol. III, Naples 1767 [1776], s.p. (‘Avant-Propos’).
30 Ibid.
31 On Winckelmann’s model function for this publication project: D. Constantine, Winckelmann and Sir William
Hamilton, in: Oxford German Studies 22, 1993, p. 55–83. On the genesis of the Antiquités: P. Griener, Le Antichità
etrusche greche e romane 1766–1776 di Pierre Hugues d’Hancarville, Rome 1992; N. Heringman, Sciences of Anti-
quity, Oxford 2013, ch. 3. On Hamilton’s collection: Vases and Volcanoes. Sir William Hamilton and his Collection
(exh. cat. London, British Museum), London 1996.
32 [C]es temps si éloignés de nous, se lient avec celui où nous vivons, c’est par la secrete influence qu’ils ont sur les Esprits, que
les Siecles se touchent. (d’Hancarville, Antiquités (cit. n. 25), vol. III, Naples 1767 [1776], p. 32)
33 He was even called a ‘Vorfahre Aby Warburgs’ (L. Ritter Santini, ‘Auf dunklen Grund gezogen.’ Das Gedächtnis
der Bilder, in: Geheimster Wohnsitz. Goethes italienisches Museum (ed. H. Mildenberger et al.), Berlin 1999, p.
41–73, here: p. 52).
34 Griener, Le Antichità (cit. n. 31), p. 58; Haskell, The Baron d’Hancarville (cit. n. 28), p. 185; J. Moore, History as The-
oretical Reconstruction? Baron D’Hancarville and the Exploration of Ancient Mythology in the Eighteenth Century, in:
Reinventing history: the enlightenment origins of ancient history (ed. Ibid. et al.), London 2008, p. 137–167, here: p. 150.
35 d’Hancarville, Antiquités (cit. n. 25), vol. III, Naples 1767 [1776], p. 36. [La] maniere de représenter les Dieux qui
commenca dès les temps qui antérieurs à la découverte de la Sculpture subsista toujours avec elle, & ne finit pas, même par
l’extinction de la Religion des Grecs & des Romains, puisqu’elle existe encore chez nous en mille facons différentes, qu’il
seroit trop long de rapporter ici. (Ibid., p. 64)
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Buch Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa"
Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa
- Titel
- Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa
- Herausgeber
- Ingeborg Schemper-Sparholz
- Martin Engel
- Andrea Mayr
- Julia Rüdiger
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- WIEN · KÖLN · WEIMAR
- Datum
- 2018
- Sprache
- deutsch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-20147-2
- Abmessungen
- 18.5 x 26.0 cm
- Seiten
- 428
- Schlagwörter
- Scholars‘ monument, portrait sculpture, pantheon, hall of honour, university, Denkmal, Ehrenhalle, Memoria, Gelehrtenmemoria, Pantheon, Epitaph, Gelehrtenporträt, Büste, Historismus, Universität
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Chroniken