Imprinting Antiquity: Reinventing the Past through Sixteenth-Century Prints

Imprinting Antiquity: Reinventing the Past through Sixteenth-Century Prints

Fisher, Kylie

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2020, Art History

Early modern prints were pivotal in the construction and dissemination of information and ideas throughout society, thereby functioning as agents in the cultivation of cultural belief and memory. This dissertation considers the understudied role of engravings of ancient architectural monuments, classical figural statues, and pseudo-antique objects in shaping a shared conception of ancient Rome in historically-removed viewers during the early sixteenth century. Although it is well-established that Renaissance humanists and art connoisseurs were obsessed with all things antique, the socio-cultural function of engravings of antiquities from that period, until now, has not been analyzed in detail. This study examines the ways in which prints of antiquities reinvented the urban topography and artistic culture of ancient Rome and what effect such images had on how the amorphous phenomenon of antiquity was understood during the early modern era. In so doing, it argues that engravings of classical remains served as lenses through which to imagine, and more significantly, as visual stimuli for remembering antiquity in ways that engendered ideological meaning about the ancient pagan city in relationship to its early modern Christian counterpart. Chapter ones provides an overview of the dominant intellectual pursuits of Renaissance Rome and explores how the printmaking enterprise intersected in profound ways with local humanist and antiquarian activities. The second and third chapters focus on engravings of extant classical ruins and statues. By analyzing how these images manipulated the appearances of the remains they depict, these chapters investigate how such “printed proxies” offered original viewers presumed insights into the historical, material, and cultural character of the ancient city, thereby establishing an implicit paragone between old and new Rome. Chapter four examines another type of all'antica portrayal, images of fictive objects that purport to depict rea (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Erin Benay (Committee Chair); Catherine Scallen (Committee Member); Emily Peters (Committee Member); Peter Knox (Committee Member)