Essays on the philosophy and history of art

Abstract

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68), German classical archaeologist and art historian, is considered the founder of neoclassicism and systematic art history. His masterpiece, Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (1764) surveys the history of Greek Art and sets forth his theories on its fundamental aesthetic principles. This work was expanded in a second edition of 1776 and the work made Winckelmann a European celebrity. This text gave birth to late 18th-century neoclassicism, and its influence on writers and philosophers, such as Lessing, Herder and Goethe, was enormous. The only complete English version of this work is G. Henry Lodge's translation of 1880 which is reprinted here and includes a life of Winckelmann. The majority of other essays by Winckelmann likely to be of interest to English-speaking audiences are included in the first volume reprinted here. Six of these essays were originally translated by Henry Fuseli, the Swiss critic and painter, and published in a now rare volume entitled Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks... (1765). Curtis Bowman, as well as writing an introduction that contextualizes Winckelmann's importance for the modern reader, has added two new translations of Winckelmann's art critical essays, neither of which have been fully available to English readers before. This set should be of interest to Western art historians, German studies and aesthetics scholars by providing English-speaking readers with all of Winckelmann's most important writings on art.