Page - 261 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

At least some of his contemporaries might have judged this operation a success. This is sug- gested by an impressive, fictive paper monument for Caylus, printed in the fourth and last volume of Pierre d’Hancarville’s Antiquités étrusques, grecques et romaines (1767–1776), the monumen- tal and highly influential publication of the col- lection of vases by the British diplomat William Hamilton (Fig. 2). Here, Caylus seems to have virtually arrived in the past. He is entombed in an antique site, in many parts dilapidated und ruinous. His portrait medallion, which also ornamented his actual tomb, is affixed on a very pointed pyramid. The latter does not look very Egyptian, but rather resembles depictions of the Cestius pyramid in Rome.15 If this identification is correct, it might be appropriate to try to ‘read’ the architectural fragments displayed in the etch- ing in a diagrammatical way, interpreting their sequence from fore- to background as a kind of timeline: At the bottom, in the foreground, lies a console with Egyptian hieroglyphics, be- hind it stands a row of Doric columns, i.e., a Greek structure, and the end was represented by the ‘Cestius/Caylus-Pyramid’, a mock-Roman structure, referring to the original archetypes of Egyptian art, and thus summarizing the whole of the antique history of art. If this is the case, d’Hancarville’s paper monument situates the late Caylus in the same chronological framework as he himself did with his own ‘urn’. ii The motif of such a reverse renaissance was con- genially adopted for the remembrance of another, even more famous historian: Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The murder of Winckelmann in Triest in 1768 (about three years after the death of Caylus) was a traumatic shock for the European republic of letters.16 The dozens of eulogies writ- ten for the greatest antiquary of all time overflow with grief and articulate the feeling of a profound loss.17 One of the most successful outcomes of this ‘mourning work’ was another paper monument designed by Winckelmann’s friend Adam Fried- rich Oeser, which was printed as a frontispiece in numerous posthumous editions of Winckel- mann’s History of Ancient Art, such as the French translation by Michel Huber and Gottfried Sel- lius, or the Italian translation by Carlo Fea (Fig. 3).18 In front of a large cenotaph, adorned with a portrait medallion of Winckelmann, stands a weeping woman. It is one of the Fates; the re- mains of the cut thread of life lies on the floor in front of her. The late Winckelmann and his in- genious scholarly mind, one might conclude, is irrevocably lost and gone. Yet, some solace remained. As is well known, Winckelmann’s theory of history suggests a view of ancient art as an ultimately past and un- reachable state that could no longer be experi- enced in its fullness. In this respect, his views were very similar to those of Caylus sketched above.19 Famously, in the final scene of his Hist- ory of Art, Winckelmann formulated this vision PaPer monuments for antiquaries 261 15 ‘Aus der Pyramide des Cestius ist ein Monument für den Comte de Caylus geworden’ (Rees, Kultur des Amateurs (cit. n. 1), p. 438). 16 Il fut pleuré de ses amis & regreté de tous ceux qui s’intéressent aux progrès des Arts & des Sciences. (J. J. Winckelmann, Histoire de l’art de l’antiquité (trad. M. Huber), Paris 1781, p. CXXXVI) 17 See only C.G. Heyne, Lobschrift auf Winckelmann, Leipzig 1778, and Die Kasseler Lobschriften auf Winckelmann (ed. A. Schulz), Berlin 1963. 18 Cf. Das Evangelium des Schönen. Zeichnungen von Adam Friedrich Oeser (exh. cat. Leipzig, Museum der bilden- den Künste), München 2008, p. 58ff. 19 For a comparison of the art theories by Winckelmann and Caylus, see E. Décultot, Winckelmann et Caylus.