FR | Re-Building an Ancient Wonder

The importance of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus for European culture is revealed by its very name, which has become a noun signifying any sufficiently monumental tomb. However, the Mausoleum was destroyed during the Middle-Ages, and many aspects of its appearance remain uncertain. During the Early Modern Period, the main sources of information on this building were thus ancient texts, which were the only references concerning the Mausoleum’s dimensions and appearance. Accurately reconstructing architecture according to brief written descriptions, however, is an impossible task. Yet, despite this difficulty or perhaps due to the liberty it offered the imagination, numerous artists, architects and antiquaries took a keen interest in the monument during the timeframe 1500-1850, mainly using Pliny’s description to suggest reconstructions, devise pictorial representations and seek inspiration for new funerary projects or monumental public architecture.

This research seminar is part of wider endeavours to examine the afterlife of the Mausoleum during this period. Students will assist the project leaders, Desmond Bryan Kraege (AHO Oslo / Princeton) and Felix Martin (RWTH), in publishing a book on the afterlife of the Mausoleum co-authored by several scholars from Europe and the United States.