Empire without End: Antiquities Collections in Renaissance Rome, c. 1350–1527

Abstract

'Empire without End' traces the history of antiquities collecting in early modern Rome from the fourteenth century to the Sack of Rome in 1527. It considers the question of how antique images in this era went from pagan idols to be smashed or re-used as building materials to ‘works of art’ displayed in collections, paying particular attention to the role of collecting in the invention of fictive genealogies, the paragone between sculpture and poetry, and the reception of antique sculpture by academic sodalities. The book includes a catalogue that maps out the history of the most important sculpture collections of this period.