Ricostruire l’Antico nel XVI secolo. Su alcuni disegni di vasi nelle Antichità di Pirro Ligorio

In mid-16th-century Rome, the rise of Textkritik marked a shift in archaeology, elevating material fragments from mere symbols of tempus edax to essential epistemological tools and making them pivotal in the pursuit of knowledge about ancient civilizations. By collating written sources with archaeological evidence, scholars sought to reconstruct a lost totality. A prominent proponent of this approach was the Neapolitan antiquarian Pirro Ligorio. This paper analyzes a series of vase drawings from Book XLVIII of his antiquarian treatise, with the aim of examining the methodology used to reconstruct fragmented antiquity through illustrative examples of notable cases. Beyond the practice of restoring fragmented objects on paper – as exemplified by Ligorio’s drawings of sculptures – specific vase illustrations bearing inscriptions reveal a broader objective: not merely to complete a single artifact, but to address gaps affecting an entire category of evidence, namely archaeological testimonies. This approach highlights the significance of material evidence, which had previously been considered subordinate to textual sources but is now recognized as essential for understanding the ancient world.