Page - 258 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

years after Caylus’ death), he included a remark- able object (Fig. 1). Caylus, who had bought the item some years before, thought it to be a Roman urn dating from the time of Emperor Hadrian, namely, the first half of the second cen- tury A.D.2 The catalogue entry describing this monument indicates how fascinated the Comte was by the magnificence générale and intelligence of its features, the plus beau porphyre it was made of, as well as by the poli of its intérieur.3 Caylus was attracted even more by the iconographic fea- tures of the urn than by its craftsmanship. The consoles of the object, in particular, caught his attention. These were decorated with animaux fantastiques, most likely representing some kind of feline animal. In Caylus’ eyes, they were in- debted to the iconographic model of the Sphinx of the Greek, which the Romans often imitated.4 Fig. 1: ‘Urne dite du comte de Caylus’, in Caylus, Recueil (cit. n. 2), p. 236. hans christian hönes 258 the interplay of these different fields of interest, see the study by J. Rees, Die Kultur des Amateurs: Studien zu Le- ben und Werk von Anne Claude Philippe de Thubières, Comte de Caylus (1692–1765), Weimar 2006. 2 [C]ette espece d’urne, dont […] l’usage ne pouvoit être destiné qu’à un Cénotaphe, ou peut-être à renfermer les cendres d’un personage, sans doute, considerable [… was made] aux environs du regne d’Adrien. (A. C. de Caylus, Recueil d’Antiquités Egyptiennes, Etrusques, Grecques, Romaines et Gauloises, vol. VII (Supplement), Paris 1767, p. 235ff.) 3 Ibid., p. 235. 4 Ibid. All translations, unless otherwise stated, are mine. Open Access © 2018 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR