|
|
Johann J. Winckelmann (1717 - 1768)
|
|
|
|
Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
|
 Modern
Theories of Art, 1: From Winckelmann to Baudelaire by
Moshe Barasch
An analytical survey of the
thought about painting and sculpture as it unfolded from the early
18th to the mid-19th centuries. This was the period during which
the intellectual foundations of our modern views on the arts was
formed. Barasch surveys the opinions of the artists, and also
treats in some detail the doctrines of philosophers, poets, and
critics. Barasch thus traces for the reader the entire development
of modernism in art and art theory.
|
|
From Britannica
Excerpt:
German archaeologist and art
historian whose writings directed popular taste toward classical
art, particularly that of ancient Greece, and influenced not only
Western painting and sculpture but also literature and even
philosophy.
Winckelmann was the son of a
cobbler. His formative years were deeply influenced by the study
of Greek, particularly of Homer, whom he first read in Alexander
Pope's English translation. Later he studied theology at the
University of Halle (1738) and medicine at the University of Jena
(1741-42). But it was not until 1748, as librarian to Count von Bünau
at Nöthnitz near Dresden, that he came into contact with the
world of Greek art. There he wrote the formative essay, Gedanken
über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und
Bildhauerkunst (1755; Reflections on the Painting and
Sculpture of the Greeks, 1765), in which he maintained,
"The only way for us to become great, or even inimitable if
possible, is to imitate the Greeks."
|
|
Excerpt:
...As a child,
Johann was influenced by the ancient Greek culture, especially
Homer. He studied theology and medicine at Halle and Jena
universities. In 1748 he discovered the world of ancient Greek art
while serving as a librarian near Dresdan. There he wrote the
essay “Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the
Greeks” (1755). This was recognized as a manifesto of the Greek
ideal in education and art. His other works include, Geschichte
der Kunst des Alterhums (1764, History of the Art of Antiquity).
In 1763 he became superintendent of Roman
antiquities, but soon he rose to be the position of librarian at
the Vatican and later became the secretary to Cardinal Albani, who
had an extensive collection of classical art. Winkelmann never
made the trip to Greece he had always intended to do. Even so, his
writings reawakened the taste for classical art and was
responsible for generating the neoclassical movement in the arts.
On June 8, 1768 on his way back to Rome from Germany and Austria,
he was murdered by a chance acquaintance in Trieste, Italy, which
was where he was buried...
|
|
|
|
Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
|
|
