Winckelmann's Images from the Ancient World: Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Egyptian

by Johann Joachim Winckelmann

Compiled by the father of modern art history, this landmark 1767 publication boasts more than 200 outstanding engravings of ancient monuments. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, an eighteenth-century scholar who devoted his life to the study of ancient art, was the first to outline the distinctions between works of Egyptian, Etruscan, Roman, and Greek origin. Drawing upon his encyclopedic knowledge of ancient literature, Winckelmann explained the origins and significance of each of these previously unknown and unpublished images from historic buildings and monuments. 
These finely engraved illustrations of figures from ancient religion and mythology offer a compelling study, particularly in the light of the details imparted by the German scholar’s commentary. In addition to reproductions of all the images from the original volume, this edition includes newly translated text and captions and an Introduction that relates fascinating details concerning the author's life. This is the first English-language version of Winckelmann's classic, presenting not only a panorama of captivating sights from classical civilizations but also a major contribution to the literature of art history.

Genres: Art

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1767

About the author

Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology", Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art. Many consider him the father of the discipline of art history. His would be the decisive influence on the rise of the neoclassical movement during the late 18th century. His writings influenced not only a new science of archaeology and art history but Western painting, sculpture, literature and even philosophy. Winckelmann's History of Ancient Art (1764) was one of the first books written in German to become a classic of European literature. His subsequent influence on Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Hölderlin, Heine, Nietzsche, George, and Spengler has been provocatively called "the Tyranny of Greece over Germany."

Reviews

[Grecia_quetzali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bro se vuelve a morir si se entera que sus esculturas estaban policromadas