Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and S... by Johann Joachim Winckelmann

Moreover, his salary was so low that he had to rely on his students' parents to have free meals. In 1743 Winckelmann was appointed deputy head master of the gymnasium of Seehausen, but from the beginning he felt that his work with children was not his true calling. Between the terms and sometimes during them he worked as a tutor of languages in Osterburg in the Altmark, where he taught himself French. In 1740 Winckelmann started to study medicine at Jena. While in Halle, he followed the lectures of Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, who coined the term 'aesthetics'. He had became interested in Greek classics already in his youth, but he soon realized that teachers could not satisfy his intellectual pursuits in this field. Later in Rome, when he was a famous scholar, he wrote: 'One gets spoiled here but God owed me this in my youth I suffered too much.'Īt the age of 21 Winckelmann entered the University of Halle where he studied theology. Winckelmann's early years were full of hardships but his thirst for learning pushed him forward. His father, Martin Winckelmann, was a cobbler, and mother, Anna Maria Meyer, a daughter of a weaver. Johann Joachim Winkelmann was born in Stendal, Prussia, into poverty. 'Beauty is one of the greatest mysteries of nature.' (Winckelmann in The History of Ancient Art, 1764) Winckelmann crystallized his famous concept of the essence of Greek art – 'Noble simplicity and quiet grandeur' (edle Einfalt und stille Grösse) – in Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1755). Winckelmann was the founder of modern scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style systematically to the history of art. German art historian and archeologist, who in initiating the 'Greek revival' deeply influence the rise of the neoclassical movement during the late 18th century. All pages are unmodified as they originally appeared some links and images may no longer function. The original website was published by Petri Liukkonen under Creative Commons BY-ND-NC 1.0 Finland and reproduced here under those terms for non-commercial use.

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Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and S... by Johann Joachim Winckelmann