British School at Rome: Papers of the British School at Rome (9.1920)

PAPERS OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME.
Vol. IX. No. 5.

ANTIQUAE STATUAE URBIS ROMAE.
By THOMAS ASHBY, D.Litt., F.S.A.
The history of the monuments and works of art of the classical
period, which were in existence in Rome during the Renaissance, is
of importance to us for many reasons. We may learn what were the
materials which were at the disposal of the great masters in architecture,
painting, and sculpture, and see in their drawings and sketches, as well
as in the works which they actually executed, what use they made of the
models which they had before their eyes, and what interested them in a
greater or less degiee. We may trace the growth of that antiquarianism
out of which the science of archaeology was in process of time to develop.
We may also obtain valuable information concerning much that has been
destroyed or lost, or has, at least, come down to us in a very different
state to that in which it was in their day.
If this is obvious in regard to architecture, it is no less true of the
other arts : and although we must beware of supposing that the painter
limited himself to the study of ancient painting, and the sculptor to the
study of ancient sculpture,1 instead of taking what suited or pleased
them best wherever they might chance to find it among the remains of
antique art, it will always be most instructive to know what models
1 Amelung has shown (in Hoffmann, Raphael als Architekt, iv. V atikanischer Palast,
pp. 57 sqq.) in how wide a field Raphael's pupils sought their models for the decoration
of the Loggie in the Vatican, making use of coins and gems, as well as of reliefs and statues.
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