About 65,000 red-figure vases and vase fragments are known to have survived. The study of ancient pottery and of Greek vase painting began already in the Middle Ages. Restoro d'Arezzo dedicated a chapter ("Capitolo de le vasa antiche") of his description of the world to ancient vases. He considered especially the clay vessels as perfect in terms of shape, colour, and artistic style. Nevertheless, initially the attention focused on vases in general, and perhaps especially on stone vases. The first collections of ancient vases, including some painted vessels, developed during the Renaissance. We even know of some imports from Greece to Italy at that time. Still, until the end of the Baroque period, vase painting was overshadowed by other genres, especially by sculpture. A rare pre-Classicist exception is a book of watercolours depicting figural vases, which was produced for Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. Like some of his contemporary collectors, Peiresc owned a number of clay vases.