The third section discussed the practices of war, the nature of civic architecture (roads, bridges, aqueducts), as well as navigation and the construction ships. It examined clothing, furniture, marriages, games, festivals, and more. The second section focused on the practices of everyday life, including civic rituals. The first, concerned itself with the gods, temple architecture, and religious practices of the ancient Greeks and Romans as well as a number other related groups including the Egyptians, Persians, Scythians, Germans, Gauls, and Carthaginians. Published in ten volumes with five supplements, it integrated objects from collections throughout Europe. The opus magnum of Bernard de Montfaucon- L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures (1719-24) -is illustrative of these tendencies. Likewise, they might collect finely wrought decorative or religious object that could verify or supplement ancient descriptions of sacred and profane practices.
The types of ancient objects that most elites and scholars collected and reproduced in drawings and prints tended to be sculptures, gems, and intaglios-especially those that could illustrate accounts from ancient literary texts. This was a world that prioritized antique objects that could speak to aesthetic interests, mythological narratives, morality, the histories of great lives, and the administration of the state. Throwaway items, such as undecorated pottery or the assemblages found in middens, were virtually ignored. Since collections needed to serve as symbols of their owner’s wealth, power, knowledge, and/or taste, the material culture of the everyday-common tools and the detritus of daily life-were marginal. The conditions of the discovery, restoration, and subsequent reproduction of the Diogenes relief provides insights into the nature of antiquarianism in the early eighteenth-century Italy.
The philosopher replied, “Yes, stand a little out of my sun.” Amused by Diogenes’ audacity, Alexander remarked, “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.” He found Diogenes lying in the sun and asked him if he could give anything to him. This piqued Alexander’s curiosity, so he paid a visit the philosopher. The iconography of the bas relief recounts an anecdote told by authors such as Plutarch who claimed that when Alexander arrived in Corinth, every philosopher and statesman in the city went to greet him-everybody except Diogenes who stayed in the suburb of Craneion.