Johann Winckelmann summary

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Winckelmann, oil painting by Anton Raphael Mengs, 1758; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Johann Winckelmann, (born Dec. 9, 1717, Stendal, Prussia—died June 8, 1768, Trieste, Austria), German archaeologist and art historian. The son of a cobbler, he studied theology and medicine before he discovered Greek art. His essay Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (1755) became a manifesto of the Greek ideal in education and art and was soon translated into several languages. After converting to Roman Catholicism, he moved to Rome (1755) and held important posts in the Vatican. There he wrote History of the Art of Antiquity (1764), which inaugurated the study of art history as a discipline and of archaeology as a humane science. His writings reawakened the popular taste for Classical art and were instrumental in generating the Neoclassical movement in the arts.

Neoclassical art Summary

Neoclassical art, a widespread and influential movement in painting and the other visual arts that began in the 1760s, reached its height in the 1780s and ’90s, and lasted until the 1840s and ’50s. In painting it generally took the form of an emphasis on austere linear design in the depiction of

Greece Summary

Greece, the southernmost of the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. Geography has greatly influenced the country’s development. Mountains historically restricted internal communications, but the sea opened up wider horizons. The total land area of Greece (one-fifth of which is made up of the Greek

archaeology Summary

Archaeology, the scientific study of the material remains of past human life and activities. These include human artifacts from the very earliest stone tools to the man-made objects that are buried or thrown away in the present day: everything made by human beings—from simple tools to complex

art criticism Summary

Art criticism, the analysis and evaluation of works of art. More subtly, art criticism is often tied to theory; it is interpretive, involving the effort to understand a particular work of art from a theoretical perspective and to establish its significance in the history of art. Many cultures have