JOHANN JOACHIM WINKELMANN (1717-1768)

Johann Joachim Winkelmann, (December 9, 1717 - June 8, 1768) was a German theologian, librarian and art historian.

He was born in 1717 in Stendal, Magdeburg, in northern Germany (then Prussia). His father was a shoemaker and his mother a weaver. In the history of archeology he is considered the father of classical archeology as an independent science, since he distinguished it from the literary sources and he made remarkable commentaries on the ancient Greek art.

In 1755, Winkelmann published his first book titled "Thoughts on Imitation of Greek Painting and Sculpture" (Gedanken über die Nachahmung der Griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst). In this work, for the first time, his views on the superiority of ancient Greek art were expressed and he urged artists to learn from it and imitate it. The imitation, however, did not have to be mechanical, but creative in order to produce meaningful results. His phrase about the "noble simplicity and tranquil grandeur" ("edle Einfalt und stille Größe") of classical antiquity remained proverbial. He expressed the same view in the Essay on the ability to perceive fine art in 1763. It is believed that both works influenced the aesthetic perceptions of late Enlightenment Period and Classicism in Europe.

For the Science of Archaeology, however, his synthetic study of the History of Art in Antiquity (Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums), a mature work published in 1764 in Dresden, is of greater value. Here he classified the style (stylistic) evolution of ancient works of art, distinguishing:

• the "ancient" or "archaic" style, which characterizes art up to the years of the Persian Wars (7th-6th c BC)

• the "high" or "magnificent" style, which expresses the artistic integration of classical art of the 5th century BC.

The essence of Winkelmann's contribution to classical archaeological science is that he introduced the concepts of style and artistic development to the study of works of art. Thus, it offered archaeological research a valuable tool to advance the overall view of ancient works of art and, by extension, the ancient Greek civilization. By formulating the evolutionary scheme of 'genesis, development, prosperity and decline' for the style analysis and classification of ancient Greek art, he offered a more general classification scheme for the history of ancient art in general. His aesthetic analyzes and assessments were based on monumental sculpture works and, of course, on copies of the classical prototypes of the 4th century BC.

As special conditions for the development of the arts during the 5th and 4th centuries. the ideal climate and the conditions for prosperity and political freedom are explicitly mentioned.

Winckelmann was assassinated in a hotel of Trieste by Francesco Arancelj (a criminal who had "met" at the port of the city in the early days of his arrival in Trieste, most likely motivated by robbery) in June 1768 and was buried in the yard of the Cathedral of San Giusto.

His perceptions are thought to have influenced contemporary and later students of ancient Greek art mainly in Germany, but also in the texts of many great 19th-century spiritual figures such as Goethe, Schiller, and Byron. The echo of his theories reached the political topicality of his day. Thus his views on the decisive role played by the democratic rule of city-states in the development of ancient Greek art found favorable ground in the ideology of the French Revolution first and later among Napoleon's followers.