Page 34 - Beholding Liberty!

Jean-Denis Barbié
du Bocage
Scene of sacrifice in Ancient Athens, illustration (Recueil de cartes géographiques, plans, vues et médailles de l’ancienne Grèce) for the work of Jean- Jacques Barthélemy, Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce, Paris 1789
(2nd edition), Library of the Hellenic Parliament [cat. no Ι.1.3]
22. Augustinos 2003, 69 ff.
23. Koutsogiannis 2014, 90 cat. no 20.
24. See indicatively Koutsogiannis 2012, 30, Koutsogiannis 2018, 402-405.
25. Koutsogiannis 2019.
26. Koutsogiannis 2015, 118 ff.
the left – but also entirely fictional ones – such as the circular temple (rotunda) on the right. This combination continues the long tradition of paradoxical compositions (capricci).
Similarly, in the work by the hellenist Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, the “Voyage of the young Anacharsis in Greece”22 [cat. no I.1.3], which made him famous in revolutionary France, is appeared exclusively classical Athens and Greece in the 4th century BC. The accompanying illustration, by Jean-Denis Bar- bié du Bocage23 [cat. no II.8.A.2], with ground plans and views, is indicative of Neoclassicism and more specifically of the “hellenomania” of the time, the trend that from the 1760s and 1770s inundated the visual culture of France, establishing “Greek taste” (goût grec or goût à la greque)24 in the visual arts and aesthetics more broadly.
But however much these Greek representations lack modern Greek reality, the imaginary Greek nar- rations and views of Barthélemy and Cassas would create the necessary underpinning on which Philhellenism gradually developed.
The purist archaeological approaches to Greek history would determine the European view of Greece’s historical past,25 which was to constitute the strongest argument in favor of the Greek demand for freedom. This ideological scheme would be of decisive assistance in shaping Greek self-awareness. For example, on the level of the visual culture, the imagined views of Anaharsis would be utilized by Rigas Feraios in the illustration – as a kind of evidence – of his Map [cat. no I.2.21], with the inserted plans of historical – always ancient – sites in Greece. Consequently, the antiquity lovers of Neoclassi- cism were those who would create the image of modern Greece before the revolution, in decline on the one hand, but also with understanding of its historic heritage.
THE ROMANTIC TRAVELLERS IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY GREECE
In the late 18th century, travellers paved the way for many more people to follow in the early 19th century, during the two pre-revolutionary decades. Greece as a place for travel had become almost
fashionable.
Antiquarian research would continue and become more intense; similarly the relevant publications increased and their authors threw themselves into a word game of corrections and supplements to
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