Place of the Antique in Early Modern Europe

A scholar's desk, a warlord's castle, a pope's altar, the mouth of a volcano: in the minds of early modern Europeans, all evoked memories of ancient times, from Egyptian pharaohs to Roman emperors. The essays in this catalog explore the influence of antiquity on a broad spectrum of artistic production in Europe, from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. They include investigations of proto-scientific imagery, Ovidian myth, allegorical devices, the papal banquet, and the growing importa…