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WINCKELMANN, JOHANN JOACHIM (1717-.1768)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 708 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WINCKELMANN, JOHANN See also:JOACHIM (1717-.1768) , See also:German archaeologist, was See also:born at See also:Stendal in See also:Brandenburg on the 9th of See also:December 1717, the son of a poor shoemaker. He attended a gymnasium at See also:Berlin and the school at See also:Salzwedel, and in 1738 was induced to go as a student of See also:theology to See also:Halle. But he was no theologian, and he soon devoted himself with See also:enthusiasm to See also:Greek See also:art and literature. With the intention of becoming a physician he attended medical classes at See also:Jena; but means were insufficient and he was obliged to accept a tutorship near See also:Magdeburg. From 1743 to 1748 he was See also:associate-See also:rector of a school at Seehausen in the Altmark. He then went to Nothenitz near See also:Dresden as librarian to See also:Count See also:Henry von Btinau, for whose See also:history of the See also:Holy See also:Roman See also:empire he collected materials. The treasures in the Dresden See also:gallery awakened an intense See also:interest in art, which was deepened by association with various artists, and especially with A. F. Oeser, who afterwards exercised so powerful an See also:influence over See also:Goethe. Winckelmann's study of See also:ancient literature had inspired him with a See also:desire to visit See also:Rome, and he became librarian to See also:Cardinal Passionei in 1754. This compelled him reluctantly to join the Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church. In 1755, before leaving for Rome, Winckelmann published his Gedanken ilber See also:die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in Malerei and Bildhauerkunst (" Thoughts on the See also:Imitation of Greek See also:Works in See also:Painting and See also:Sculpture "), followed by a pretended attack on the See also:work, and a See also:defence of its principles, nominally by an impartial critic.

The Gedanken contains the first statement of the doctrines he afterwards See also:

developed, and was warmly admired not only for the ideas it contained but for its See also:style. See also:Augustus III., elector of See also:Saxony and See also:king of See also:Poland, granted him a See also:pension of 200 thalers, that he might prosecute his studies in Rome. He arrived in Rome in See also:November 1755, became librarian to Cardinal Archinto, and received much kindness from Cardinal Passionei. After their deaths he was received as librarian and as a friend into the See also:house of Cardinal See also:Albani, who was forming his magnificent collection at Porta Salara. In 1763, while retaining this position, Winckelmann was made See also:prefect of antiquities. He devoted himself earnestly, at first with the aid of his friend A. R. See also:Mengs, to the study of Roman antiquities, and gradually acquired an unrivalled knowledge of ancient art. In 1760appeared his Description See also:des pierces gravees du See also:feu See also:Baron de Stosch; in 1762 his Anmerkungen caber die Baukunst der See also:Alien (" Observations on the See also:Architecture of the Ancients "), including an See also:account of the temples at See also:Paestum. In 1758 and 1762 he visited See also:Naples, and from his Sendschreiben von den herculanischen Entdeckungen (1762) and his Nachricht von den neueslen herculanischen Entdeckungen (1764) scholars obtained their first real See also:information about the treasures excavated at See also:Pompeii and See also:Herculaneum. Winckelmann again visited Naples in 1765 and 1767, and wrote for the use of the electoral See also:prince and princess of Saxony his Briefe an Bianconi, which were published, eleven years after his See also:death, in the Antologia See also:romana. His masterpiece, the Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (" History of Ancient Art "), issued in 1764, was soon recognized as a permanent contribution to See also:European literature.

In this work Winckelmann sets forth both the history of Greek art and the principles on which it seemed to him to be based. He also presents a glowing picture of the conditions, See also:

political, social and intellectual, which tended to See also:foster creative activity in ancient See also:Greece. The fundamental See also:idea of his theory is that the end of art is beauty, and that this end can be attained only when individual and characteristic features are strictly subordinated to the artist's See also:general See also:scheme. The true artist, selecting from nature the phenomena fitted for his purpose, and combining them through the See also:imagination, creates an ideal type marked in See also:action by " See also:noble simplicity and See also:calm greatness "—an ideal type in which normal proportions are maintained, particular parts, such as muscles and See also:veins, not being permitted to break the See also:harmony of the general outlines. In the See also:historical portion he used not only the works of art he himself had studied but the scattered notices on the subject to be found in ancient writers; and his wide knowledge and active imagination enabled him to offer many fruitful suggestions as to periods about which he had little See also:direct information. Many of his conclusions based on the inadequate See also:evidence of Roman copies have been modified or reversed by subsequent See also:research, but the See also:fine enthusiasm of the work, its strong and yet graceful style, and its vivid descriptions of works of art give it enduring value and interest. It marked an See also:epoch by indicating the spirit in which the study of Greek art should be approached, and the methods by which investigators might See also:hope to attain to solid results. To Winckelmann's contemporaries it came as a See also:revelation, and exercised a profound influence on the best minds of the See also:age. It was read with intense interest by See also:Lessing, who had found in the earliest of Winckelmann's works the starting-point for his See also:Laocoon. Winckelmann contributed various admirable essays to the Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften; and in 1766 he published his Versuch einer Allegoric, which, although containing the results of much thought and See also:reading, is not conceived in a thoroughly See also:critical spirit. Of far greater importance was the splendid work entitled Monumenti antichi inediti (1767-1768), prefaced by a Trattato preliminare, presenting a general See also:sketch of the history of art. The plates in this work are representations of See also:objects which had either been falsely explained or not explained at all.

Winckelmann's explanations were of the highest service to See also:

archaeology, by showing that in the See also:case of many works of art supposed to be connected with Roman history the ultimate See also:sources of See also:inspiration were to be found in See also:Homer. In 1768 Winckelmann went to See also:Vienna, where he was received with See also:honour by Maria See also:Theresa. At See also:Trieste on his way back he was murdered in an hotel by a See also:man named Arcangeli to whom he had shown some coins presented by Maria Theresa (See also:June 8th, 1768). He was buried in the See also:churchyard of the See also:cathedral of St Giusto at Trieste. An edition of his works was begun by See also:Fernow in 1808 and completed by See also:Meyer and Schulze (1808-1820). There are admirable studies of his See also:character and work in Goethe's Winckelmann and sein Jahrhundert (1805), to which contributions were made by Meyer and See also:Wolf, and in See also:Walter See also:Pater's See also:Renaissance (1902). Thebest See also:biography of Winckelmann is by Justi, Winckelmann and See also:seine Zeitgenossen (2nd ed., 3 vols., See also:Leipzig, 1898). A collection of letters, Briefe an seine Ziiricher Freunde, was published by Blumner (See also:Freiburg, 1882). (J. St.; J. M.

End of Article: WINCKELMANN, JOHANN JOACHIM (1717-.1768)

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