D'Hancarville. The Complete Collection of Antiquities from the Cabinet of Sir William Hamilton

Sir William Hamilton, vulcanologist and envoy to the British Embassy in Naples, amassed an invaluable collection of ancient Greek vases, which he sold to the British Museum in 1772. He commissioned Pierre-François Hugues d’Hancarville to document the pieces before they were shipped to London: the result was a neoclassical masterpiece, reproduced here by TASCHEN in pristine detail.

Images that inspired the neoclassical imagination

Antiquarian, archaeologist, vulcanologist, and envoy to the British Embassy in Naples, Sir William Hamilton (1731–1803) was a leading European figure of his time. Though the romance between his wife Lady Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson tends to eclipse Sir William’s own activities, his work as a scientist and a classicist made major contributions to the study of Pompei, Herculaneum, and Mt. Vesuvius.

As an expert in ancient art, Hamilton also built up an invaluable collection of ancient Greek vases, subsequently sold to the British Museum in London in 1772. Before the pieces were shipped off to England, Hamilton commissioned Pierre-François Hugues d’Hancarville, an adventurous connoisseur and art dealer, to document the vases in words and images. The resulting catalog, published in four volumes and known as Les Antiquités d’Hancarville, represents a neoclassical masterpiece. Never before had ancient vases been represented with such meticulous detail and sublime beauty.

With this reprint, TASCHEN revives d’Hancarville’s masterful catalog for a contemporary audience, reproducing in exacting detail the same pristine images that sparked Europe’s love affair with the classical style.

Madeleine Huwiler studied classical archaeology, ancient history, and old Egyptian at Fribourg University. She has collaborated on various excavations and exhibitions.

Sebastian Schütze was a longtime research fellow at the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History) in Rome. He is a member of the academic board of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici in Naples, and a member of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. From 2003 to 2009 he held the Bader Chair in Southern Baroque Art at Queen’s University in Kingston. In 2009 he was appointed professor of early modern art history at Vienna University.