politicians of the enlightened world. The canon was centred especially on
Greek Sparta and Republican Rome, states both characterized by an emphasis
on purity, simplicity, high-mindedness, and stoicism. Classical authors
provided the basis for conceptualizations of human nature; the nature and
purpose of virtue; society’s role in its production; of liberty and of the
necessaryWght against tyranny. The classics also created a common language
full of associations. Statues, Roman writers and, in fact, everything relating to
the classics were metaphors, precious metaphors which conferred status only
on the learned and the initiated members of the society (Richard 1994; Smith
1976b).
The past which eighteenth-century antiquarians took as their model was
drawn from both the Greek and Roman past. The former, after the favourable
start by Cyriac of Ancona in theWfteenth century, had been left aside, but was
starting to be explored again in the seventeenth century, becoming fashionable
during the Enlightenment (E ́tienne & E ́tienne 1992: chs. 3 and 4). 3 The study
of the Greek past would clearly be inXuenced by its status as the predecessor of
Roman art, but, as explained in the next section, it also had a certain pre-
romantic component. This factor was only of very limited importance in
Italian archaeology, which at this time had a major and uncontested inXuence.
Italy was the centre of attraction, the main destination of the Grand Tour, the
journey of discovery undertaken by young men (and some women) of the
social elite, for many months or up to a few years, as a rite of passage into a
cultured and educated adulthood. Italian antiquities, mainly those coming
from the excavations of Rome, Herculaneum, and Pompeii, and from the
Etruscan sites, received much attention. But not everybody could aVord the
Grand Tour trip, and a growing number of less well-oVyoungsters had to
content themselves with an increasing amount of illustrated books.
Herculaneum, Pompeii, Rome, and the Etruscans: visiting antiquities
during the Grand Tour
The excavations of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabia, the ancient Roman
towns buried by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in 79ce, were key in
further encouraging the cult of antiquity. Excavations had started from the
Wrst years of the eighteenth century in Portici, when the Austrian Prince
d’Elboeuf, a general and ambassador in Naples, then part of the Spanish
kingdom, found some sculptures when excavating a well in 1711 (Mora
3 For Danish travellers see Helk (1991) and for the few American travellers see Dyson (1998:
ch. 1, esp. 10). For Greek historiography see comments in Ceserani (2005: 415).
Antiquities and Political Prestige 43