Alain Schnapp

Book review: The Discovery of the Past: The Origins of Archaeology by Alain Schnapp
...
Schnapp is both Professor of Greek Archaeology and Head of the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology at the University of Paris and his classical training and art history expertise clearly infuses the structure and orientation of the text.This also limits its usefulness however, particularly in terms of the ways in which archaeology is practised outside of Europe, in non-Classical contexts.Even a cursory glance through the book reveals its preoccupation with the "great civilisations" of the ancient and modern world: Egypt, Assyria, China, Greece, Rome, Europe.The artefacts of the narrative are invariably either monuments or "Art" (with a capital "A"): the burial mound of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (the entombed warriors); the statue of Charlemagne; a Corinthian vase; the palace of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths; a painting by Rubens, Titian or Tischbein.\r\n\r\nAs a corollary Schnapp"s knowledge of these societies and with how they viewed the past is possible only because of their ability to write it down, and thus the text itself becomes inextricably concerned with the meaning and uses of writing.When Schnapp writes (in a discussion on the European forerunners of the Renaissance): "The idea had been implanted in scholarly circles that the collection and decipherment of inscriptions was a valid historical pursuit" (p.105), he is also documenting the creation of a chain of events which linked certain concepts together, as he links the words ("scholarly", "inscriptions", "valid" and "historical") in a sentence.Without alluding to it, he is describing the process of elevating words and texts over objects - or at least over objects without texts - and thus the privileging of history as a means of accessing the past.Unfortunately, rather than analyse this process, Schnapp re-creates the same hierarchy, which leads him to voice a surprising opinion: "Archaeology is, in my view, the little bastard sister of collecting.Little, because restricted in the ways in which she can proceed and deliver; [and] bastard, because since the nineteenth century at least she has been operating from a position of denial (an archaeologist, as everyone knows, is not a collector, and archaeologists themselves are at pains to point this out)" (p.12).\r\n\r\nAside from this somewhat unorthodox definition of archaeology, one of the most memorable features of this book is its accompanying illustrations, which can be read as a separate and complementary text, both emphasising key points in the narrative and providing its own.Schnapp also includes a fascinating set of appendices covering the seminal historical texts cited in each chapter.

Professor Alain Schnapp

'The archive of the most successful art dealer of the 20th century-and especially his partnership with Bernard Berenson, who was the world's leading authority on Italian Renaissance painting-is an amazing source for researchers studying the history of taste,' said Alain Schnapp, general director of the Institut national d'histoire de l'art in Paris.

Alain Schnapp

Alain Schnapp is Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Paris I, Director of UFR History of Art and Archaeology at the University of Paris and General Director of the Istituto Nazionale di Storia dell'Arte (INHA).Professor at "La Trobe" University and Research Professor at Utah University.He has carried out his research in three distinct sectors: anthropology of the image in ancient Greece, the history of archaeology and the study of town planning in the cities and lands of the Greek world.Included in his publications are La scoperta del passato (1996), The Gods in their Greek places (1997), Preistoria e Antichita (1997), Conquete du passé (1998), Between Antiquarians and Archaeologist.Continuities and ruptures (2002).He wrote La storia antica in 2004 with F. Lebrette.

Friday 30 september 2005

15.00

lecture: Alain Schnapp