Marble mania. (Report from Europe).(Brief Article)

Used throughout the Mediterranean world for thousands of years, marble grew in popularity in England in the seventeenth century, reaching a peak at the close of the eighteenth. During these centuries scores of collectors who saw themselves as connoisseurs of ancient civilizations brought antique marbles to England. Initially they were the wealthiest and most educated people, such as Thomas Howard, fourteenth earl of Arundel, who not only acquired many marbles but also had some of his friends, among them Inigo Jones and John Evelyn, interpret them for him and publish their findings.

The grand tour, which made Italy and Greece familiar to a broader social base, accelerated the pace of importing marble statues and other such artifacts into England. Architects such as Robert Adam drew on this classical vocabulary to ...