British Museum: Enlightenment (Classifying the World)
Case 13: UNDERSTANDING GREEK VASES
In the first half of the eightenth century, scholars
and collectors explained ancient artefacts using information taken mostly from ancient texts. Close, first-hand examination of these objects would change such understanding.
This new Enlightenment approach led to the important discovery that large numbers of painted vases found in southern Italy were in fact ancient Greek. Among the first to recognise this fact was Sir William Hamilton, British ambassador to Naples. For hundreds of years, scholars had believed that the vases had been made by the Etruscans, the inhabitants of early central Italy. Hamilton, however; studied the inscriptions of his own collections of vases, and concluded that they were Greek.
Hamilton hired the French scholar Baron d'Hancarville to publish his first collection of vases, which came to the British Museum in 1772. He analysed their painting styles, tracing a progress of art which could be linked to a 'progress' of civilisation. The book, Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities, was one of the most beautiful and influential publications of the eighteenth century.
CLASSIFYING THE WORLD
This central section of the exhibition explores how different collections formed during the course of the eighteenth century were arranged to gain knowledge about the world, past and present.
During the Enlightenment, many people believed that lack of social and moral progress stemmed from ignorance about the world, its natural phenomena and its human history. As a result they developed new systems of classification, which they used to organise and explain the world around them.
Some systems depended on establishing likenesses between objects and giving them names which reflected these similarities. Others were founded on beliefs of progress and decline. By adapting these systems to classify the artefacts of contemporary and ancient cultures, people were better able to interpret their vast collections and to share their findings.
British Museum: Enlightenment (Classifying the World)
Case 13: UNDERSTANDING GREEK VASES
In the first half of the eightenth century, scholars
and collectors explained ancient artefacts using information taken mostly from ancient texts. Close, first-hand examination of these objects would change such understanding.
This new Enlightenment approach led to the important discovery that large numbers of painted vases found in southern Italy were in fact ancient Greek. Among the first to recognise this fact was Sir William Hamilton, British ambassador to Naples. For hundreds of years, scholars had believed that the vases had been made by the Etruscans, the inhabitants of early central Italy. Hamilton, however; studied the inscriptions of his own collections of vases, and concluded that they were Greek.
Hamilton hired the French scholar Baron d'Hancarville to publish his first collection of vases, which came to the British Museum in 1772. He analysed their painting styles, tracing a progress of art which could be linked to a 'progress' of civilisation. The book, Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities, was one of the most beautiful and influential publications of the eighteenth century.
CLASSIFYING THE WORLD
This central section of the exhibition explores how different collections formed during the course of the eighteenth century were arranged to gain knowledge about the world, past and present.
During the Enlightenment, many people believed that lack of social and moral progress stemmed from ignorance about the world, its natural phenomena and its human history. As a result they developed new systems of classification, which they used to organise and explain the world around them.
Some systems depended on establishing likenesses between objects and giving them names which reflected these similarities. Others were founded on beliefs of progress and decline. By adapting these systems to classify the artefacts of contemporary and ancient cultures, people were better able to interpret their vast collections and to share their findings.