Johann Winckelmann

Life: 1717-1768

Style:  Archaeologist and art historian who greatly influenced the Neoclassic art movement (2)

Works:

       Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1755)

       Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (1765)

Quote: “Beauty is one of the greatest mysteries of nature.” (2)

Fun Fact: On June 8, 1768, on his way back to Rome from Germany and Austria, Winckelmann was murdered by a chance acquaintance in Trieste, Italy.  He was later buried there. (1)

     By the time you reach Winckelmann’s house you feel bad about how harsh you were to Mengs, so you decide that you will go in and let him talk to you about his boring works before you bring up Chucky. Eventually, you regret that you decided to be patient—he drones on and on about how he was born in Stendal, Prussia, into poverty, and his father, Martin Winckelmann, was a cobbler, and his mother, Anna Maria Meyer, was the daughter of a weaver (2) and so on and so forth. Finally, when you can restrain yourself no longer, you interrupt the boring neoclassical historian and ask about Chucky.

            “Why of course,” he answers, “there is a man you should definitely talk to named Fuseli. When he was only twenty-four, he translated my work, Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks, into English (2). Quite impressive. Go find him.