{Neoclassical and Romantic Art [continued (4)]}{Neoclassical Painting}[12th May 1991]

[Redbook10:5-6][19910512:1718d]{Neoclassical and Romantic Art [continued (4)]}{Neoclassical Painting}[12th May 1991]

19910512.1718

[continued]

‘The emphasis on outline is one of the principal tenets in the writings of German scholar, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who was the most important 18th-century [ce] theorist on the art of the ancients. He was a prominent figure in classical circles in Rome, where he was librarian to Cardinall Albani, one of the notable collectors of classical antiquities in 18th-century Italy.

In his “Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke” (1755[ce]; “Reflections on the imitation of Greek Works”) he identified the main characteristic of Greek art as idealization* and argued that the *** “last and most eminent characteristic of the Greek works is a noble simplicity**** & sedate grandeur # beneath the strife and passions in Greek figures”. Winckelmann developed this interpretation of ancient art at greater length in subsequent publications, most notably in his important “Geschichte der Kunst der Altertums” (1764[ce]; “History of Ancient Art”).

Winckelmann’s detailed, chronological classification & analysis#* was an important addition to the already existing body of literature on ancient art, which was either not as scientific or which grouped material according to subject matter & themes, not according to chronology.’

#**

*(cf formulaization at c[irca]M~-U~?)

**NB (cf VIII [])

***{(cf IX: [presumably, [Redbook9:214][19910430:1230d]{Renaissance Sculpture (and Classical Influence) [continued (4)]}[30th April 1991](/ant?),] 214)}

****{r~}R~

#s~?; M~+G~?

#*NB!

#**[– ibid (Encyclopaedia Britannica 25:359)]

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