Main entry:

Quatremère de Quincy, M. (Antoine-Chrysostome), 1755-1849.

Title & Author:

Letters to Miranda and Canova on the abduction of antiquities from Rome and Athens / Antoine Quatremère de Quincy ; introduction by Dominique Poulot ; translation by Chris Miller and David Gilks.

Publication:

Los Angeles : Getty Research Institute, ©2012.

Description:

vii, 184 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Series:

Texts & documents

Notes:
English translation of two different French titles: Lettres sur le projet d'enlever les monumens de l'Italie, originally published as a pamphlet in 1796, and Lettres écrites de Londres à Rome, et adressées à M. Canova, sur les marbres d'Elgin ou les sculptures du temple de Minerve à Athènes, originally published as a section of the 1836 book Lettres sur l'enlèvement des ouvrages de l'art antique à Athènes et à Rome.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The cosmopolitanism of masterpieces / Dominique Poulot -- Letters on the plan to remove the monuments of Italy / Antoine Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy -- Letters written from London to Canova in Rome on the Elgin marbles or The sculptures of the temple of Minerva in Athens / Antoine Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy -- Petition to the directoire -- Petition presented by artists to the executive members of the directoire -- Foreword to the 1836 edition / Antoine Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy -- Biographical notes on contributors.
Translated from the French.

Summary:

Quatremére de Quincy, the most famous art critic at the end of the Enlightenment, published two sets of letters about the role of museums. He first implored them to return works of art to their original settings but later argued in favor of the museum as a place where artworks can be safely stored and made available for artists to study. Immensely contraversial and influential since they were written two centuries ago, Quatremére's texts sum up the most bewildering moment of the debate on museums: did the new institution inauguate the death of art, or bring it to its perfection? This volume offers the first English translation of the letters, as well as an extensive introduction that reveals their content, the reason for their intellectual success, and how they enlarge contemporary disputes about cultural property, national claims and universal beauty.

ISBN:

9781606060995 (pbk.)
1606060996 (pbk.)

Subject:

Q, A., 1755-1849.
Cultural property Protection Italy.
Cultural property Protection Greece.
Elgin marbles.
Marbres d'Elgin.
20.01 history of the art sciences.
02.30 museology.
Cultural property Protection.
Lettres (Quatremère de Quincy)
France.
Art.
Cultural property.
Theft.
Museum.
Correspondence.
History.
Greece.
Italy.
Frankrijk.
1796-1836

Added entries:

Poulot, Dominique.
Quatremère de Quincy, M. (Antoine-Chrysostome), 1755-1849. Lettres sur le projet d'enlever les monumens de l'Italie.
Quatremère de Quincy, M. (Antoine-Chrysostome), 1755-1849. Lettres écrites de Londres à Rome., et adressées à M. Canova, sur les marbres d'Elgin ou les sculptures du temple de Minerve à Athènes.
Getty Research Institute
Texts & documents.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 278687
Call No.: BIB 214293
Status: Available