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Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768)
Winckelmann, Johann Joachim (vink’el-män). A German critic and archæologist, the founder of scientific archæology and of classic art history as a critical science; born in Stendal, Dec. 9, 1717; died at Trieste, June 8, 1768. He was the first to consider the masterpieces of classical antiquity as representative of a stage in the development of taste, and to formulate the theory of evolution in art. His greatest work is a ‘History of the Art of Antiquity’ (1764), afterwards supplemented by ‘Observations on the History of Art’ (1767). He also published: ‘Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture’ (1755); ‘Architecture of the Ancients’ (1762); ‘Unknown Memorials [or Monuments] of Antiquity’ (1767); and many essays and pamphlets.