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J J Winckelmann

The Knitting Circle: History

Biography,writing,bibliography.

German archaeologist, art historian, and writer.

His father was a shoemaker in Brandenburg.

In 1738 he began to study Lutheran theology at the University of Halle. He later studied medicine at the University of Jena.

For several years he was a village pastor and schoolmaster. In 1742 he began tutoring F. W. Peter Lamprecht, and fell in love. A year later J. J. Winckelmann moved to Seehausen, Peter Lamprecht followed, and they lived together until 1746.

In 1748 J. J. Winckelmann took the post of librarian to Count Heinrich von Bünau at Nöthnitz near Dresden. While in this job he began studying Greek classical art through writings and engravings. In 1754 he became the librarian for Cardinal Passionei in Dresden. Here he was able to study actual art objects and this led to his seminal essayReflections Concerning the Imitation of the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. In this essay he wrote "e;The only way for us to become great and, if possible, inimitable, lies in the imitation of the Greeks."e;

J. J. Winckelmann converted to Roman Catholicism and moved to Rome. He eventually became librarian to the Vatican, president of Antiquities, and secretary to Cardinal Albino. This post gave him access to an enormous private collection of classical art. While in Rome he wrote to a friend about a relationship with a blond 16-year-old Roman who he dined with every Sunday evening.

In 1758 he examined the remains of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Paestum, and went to Florence.

He wrote a treatise on ancient architecture in 1762.

In 1763 Pope Clement XIII appointed him Papal Antiquary which included superintending excavations at Pompeii.

J. J. Winckelmann did not get to see Greece himself. His view of it was an idealised one. However his writings are regarded as the beginning of both the discipline of art criticism and also of modern archaeology. His approach to Greek culture inspired gay writers such asWalter Paterand J. A. Symonds.

In 1968 J. J. Winckelmann returned to Dresden for the first time for ten years. On his way back to Rome he had a week to wait for a boat in Trieste. He became acquainted with the 30-year-old Francesco Arcangeli and spent some time with him. However, J. J. Winckelmann was stabbed to death and Francesco Arcangeli was found guilty of the crime and executed.

• Gedanken über die Nachahmung der Griechischen Werke in der Mahlerei und Bildhauer-Kunst, 1755, translated asReflections Concerning the Imitation of the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks.

• Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums, 1764, (translated asHistory of the Art of Antiquity).

• Monumenti Antichi Inediti, 1766.

• Alex Potts, (2000), "e;Flesh and the Ideal: Winckelmann and the origins of art history"e;, Yale University Press, 294 pages, ISBN 0 300 08736 5 (paperback).
  
  IN BRIEF: Art Historyby David Watkin inThe Times Literary Supplement, 26th. January, 2001, page 32. "e;For Burckhardt in 1843, Johann Joachim Winckelmann was 'the first to distinguish between the periods of ancient art and to link the history of style with world history'. Winckelmann's importance for art historians lies in his combining first-hand study of works of art with documentary and historical evidence, and in locating these in a cultural, not a purely stylistic, history."e;
  

  "e;Alex Potts, mingling the historical with the psychoanalytic, sets Winckelmann's interpretation of Greek art as a model of utopian freedom and desire in another subversive world: the homosexual subculture of eighteenth-century Europe."e;
  

• A. L. Rowse, (1977), "e;Homosexuals in History"e;.
  

• Paul Elliott Russell, (1994), "e;The Gay 100"e;.
  

Biography,writing,bibliography.

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The Knitting Circle

First uploaded 25th. January, 2001.

Last altered 25th. January, 2001