Page - 260 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

splendour of antique art in its full bloom.11 In the preface to the sixth volume of the Recueil, Caylus described this belatedness using a geographical metaphor: The antiquary, he wrote, travels con- stantly in a distant country, where he is nothing more than an ignorant tourist, a traveller who sees, without seeing, because the incertitude of his knowledge is presenting him with nothing fixed, and the quantity of objects finally irritates and blurs his perception.12 His urn (which was indeed integrated into his tomb by his heirs, though on- ly placed on top of his actual sepulchre) func- tioned as an interface that allowed him to re- incarnate himself in the past in order to bridge the temporal gap that separated him from the past.13 To a certain degree, Caylus was aiming at an inverted, negative renaissance: He did not en- vision a rebirth of the past, but a reunification with the past by being buried in it.14 Fig. 2: Anon., Paper Memorial for the Comte de Caylus, in d’Hancarville, Antiquités (cit. n. 25), vol. IV, Naples 1767 [1776], s.p. hans christian hönes 260 11 On this motif, see P. Geimer, Die Vergangenheit der Kunst, Weimar 2002. 12 [The antiquary] voyage constamment dans un pays fort éloigné ; il voit sans voir, du moins l’imperfection de son coup d’œil, ou l’incertitude de son sçavoir ne lui présentent rien de fixe, et la quantité des objets l’offusque (Caylus, Recueil (cit. n. 2), vol. VI, Paris 1764, p. VII). 13 ‘L’auteur est enterée dans son Recueil.’ (P. Griener, La République de l’oeil. L’Expérience de l’art au siècle des Lumi- ères, Paris 2010, p. 155) ‘In dieser Urne, die als römische Arbeit unter Verwendung griechischer Formen nach Ägyp- ten wies, wollte Caylus die Reise in den pays éloigné vollenden’ (Rees, Kultur des Amateurs (cit. n. 1), p. 433). 14 Cf. Was war Renaissance? Bilder einer Erzählform (exh. cat. München, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte), Passau 2013, p. 165–168. Open Access © 2018 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR