ABSTRACT
During the early Italian Renaissance, antique fragments of works of art began to be collected for purposes of study. During the seventeenth century, fewer major works were discovered, and prices became too high for small collectors. In the early collections, mutilated antique statues and architectural fragments were usually left as found and displayed in palace courtyards or interiors. Two approaches to the treatment of mutilated ancient sculpture are its preservation in the broken state, and its restoration to the form that it might have had originally. During the fifteenth century, the character of architectural treatises had been literary and humanistic; in the sixteenth century, it became more strictly architectural with an emphasis on illustrations, an 'ABC' for practitioners. While ancient monuments continued being used as quarries for modern building, the treatises contributed to encouraging the authorities to provide orders for their protection.
