Images of Greek Vases as a Basis for a Scientific Archaeology

Abstract

Abstract During the 1830s and 1840s, Eduard Gerhard (1795–1868) worked to establish archaeology as a scientific discipline. His approach to the study of antiquity was comprehensive in its combination of archaeology, art history, epigraphy, numismatics, and philology. He founded an international institution, the Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica, and later took up the post of archaeologist at the Königliches Museum in Berlin. During this time, he worked to create the Apparat, which would become an important scholarly tool for the study of the classical world. It featured thousands of drawings of Greek vases by a variety of artists. Some of these drawings were later engraved and published, thus finding a wider audience. The drawings reflect important changes in the tradition of depicting Greek vases, as Gerhard strove to distinguish them from those in earlier publications. The drawings of the Apparat were to be ‘scientific’ in their standardization, their avoidance of personal artistic styles and any obvious changes or corrections to the vessels.