Collectors
The neo-classical movement manifested itself in a number of ways beyond the artistic and fashionable. Learned societies were established to debate the principles, others to promulgate science and learning. Clubs, like the Society of the Dilettanti, were founded to invoke the spirit of the Grand Tour and encourage and disseminate its discoveries.
Most Grand Tourists returned home with mementoes of their trip. However several men stood out in the 18th century as avid collectors of antiquities, whose acquisitiveness went beyond that of the souvenir hunter. Their contribution to the understanding of classical culture, through their collections and the access they allowed to them, was considerable. The publications they facilitated brought accurate knowledge of the classical past both to the public, and to manufacturers and designers seeking to emulate them. And their collections enabled museum collections to grow in later years, to our present benefit.
