The development or change of styles is usually considered as a process
directed by persons: the artist, the patron, and sometimes intended
audience or public. This book offers a different perspective on style
formation, taking as a starting point the presence and agency of
artefacts. Inspired by recent innovative concepts in archaeology, and
psychology, it focuses on the decades around 1800, and reconstructs how
the new object scapes that came into being in Rome and Paris, as a
result of the massive migration of objects caused by the political
upheavals of the period 1789-1815, shaped the formation of
Neo-Classicism. The author offers explanations of style formation that
go beyond traditional artistic or aesthetic considerations. The
laboratory for this investigation is Piranesi's Museo, the artefacts
that were created there, and their biographies.