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85-417: Style can be divided into the general style of a period, country or cultural group, group of artists or art movement , and the individual style of the artist within that group style. Divisions within both types of styles are often made, such as between "early", "middle" or "late". In some artists, such as Picasso for example, these divisions may be marked and easy to see; in others, they are more subtle. Style

170-436: A French medal series for illustrious men struck in 1819. Today, Humboldt University of Berlin 's Winckelmann Institute is dedicated to the study of classical archaeology. The most accessible editions of selected works, in condensed forms, are David Irwin, Winckelmann: Selected Writings on Art (London: Phaidon) 1972, and David Carter, Johann Joachim Winckelmann on Art, Architecture, and Archaeology (Camden House) 2013, and

255-425: A degree of stylization is very often found in details, and especially figures or other features at a small scale, such as people or trees etc. in the distant background even of a large work. But this is not stylization intended to be noticed by the viewer, except on close examination. Drawings , modelli , and other sketches not intended as finished works for sale will also very often stylize. "Stylized" may mean

340-511: A few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years. Art movements were especially important in modern art , when each consecutive movement was considered a new avant-garde movement. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality ( figurative art ). By

425-546: A leading art historian of 16th-century Italian painting and mentee of Sydney Joseph Freedberg (1914–1997), who invented the term, was criticised by a reviewer of her After Raphael: Painting in Central Italy in the Sixteenth Century for her "fundamental flaw" in continuing to use this and other terms, despite an apologetic "Note on style labels" at the beginning of the book and a promise to keep their use to

510-423: A marked tendency to revive at intervals "classic" styles from the past. In critical analysis of the visual arts, the style of a work of art is typically treated as distinct from its iconography , which covers the subject and the content of the work, though for Jas Elsner this distinction is "not, of course, true in any actual example; but it has proved rhetorically extremely useful". Classical art criticism and

595-506: A minimum. A rare recent attempt to create a theory to explain the process driving changes in artistic style, rather than just theories of how to describe and categorize them, is by the behavioural psychologist Colin Martindale , who has proposed an evolutionary theory based on Darwinian principles. However this cannot be said to have gained much support among art historians. Traditional art history has also placed great emphasis on

680-446: A more specific meaning, referring to visual depictions that use simplified ways of representing objects or scenes that do not attempt a full, precise and accurate representation of their visual appearance ( mimesis or " realistic "), preferring an attractive or expressive overall depiction. More technically, it has been defined as "the decorative generalization of figures and objects by means of various conventional techniques, including

765-677: A prefect of antiquities (Prefetto delle Antichità) and scriptor (Scriptor linguae teutonicae) of the Vatican. Winckelmann visited Naples again, in 1765 and 1767, and wrote for the use of the electoral prince and princess of Saxony his Briefe an Bianconi , which were published, eleven years after his death, in the Antologia romana . Winckelmann contributed various essays to the Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften ; and, in 1766, published his Versuch einer Allegorie . Of much greater importance

850-402: A revelation, and it exercised a profound influence on the best minds of the age. It was read with intense interest by Lessing , who found in the earliest of Winckelmann's works the starting-point for his Laocoön , and by Herder , Goethe and Kant . Winckelmann's historical standing is best illustrated by the countless honors he received after his death. One of these is a medal published in

935-427: A specially developed algorithm and placed them in similar style categories to human art historians. The analysis involved the sampling of more than 4,000 visual features per work of art. Apps such as Deep Art Effects can turn photos into art-like images claimed to be in the style of painters such as Van Gogh . With the development of sophisticated text-to-image AI art software , using specifiable art styles has become

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1020-532: A style, as style only results from choices made by a maker. Whether the artist makes a conscious choice of style, or can identify his own style, hardly matters. Artists in recent developed societies tend to be highly conscious of their own style, arguably over-conscious, whereas for earlier artists stylistic choices were probably "largely unselfconscious". Most stylistic periods are identified and defined later by art historians, but artists may choose to define and name their own style. The names of most older styles are

1105-409: A term with a broader connotation. As the names of many art movements use the -ism suffix (for example cubism and futurism ), they are sometimes referred to as isms . Johann Joachim Winckelmann Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( US : / ˈ v ɪ ŋ k əl m ɑː n / VINK -əl-mahn ; German: [ˈjoːhan ˈjoːaxɪm ˈvɪŋkl̩man] ; 9 December 1717 – 8 June 1768)

1190-479: A widespread tool in the 2020s. Art movement Art of Central Asia Art of East Asia Art of South Asia Art of Southeast Asia Art of Europe Art of Africa Art of the Americas Art of Oceania An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific art philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually

1275-525: Is a depressing affair indeed". According to James Elkins "In the later 20th century criticisms of style were aimed at further reducing the Hegelian elements of the concept while retaining it in a form that could be more easily controlled". Meyer Schapiro , James Ackerman , Ernst Gombrich and George Kubler ( The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things , 1962) have made notable contributions to

1360-485: Is a dominant factor in their valuation for the art market , above all for works in the Western tradition since the Renaissance. The identification of individual style in works is "essentially assigned to a group of specialists in the field known as connoisseurs ", a group who centre in the art trade and museums, often with tensions between them and the community of academic art historians. The exercise of connoisseurship

1445-400: Is by imitating the ancients". The work won warm admiration not only for the ideas it contained, but for its literary style. It made Winckelmann famous, and was reprinted several times and soon translated into French. In England, Winckelmann's views stirred discussion in the 1760s and 1770s, although it was limited to artistic circles: Henry Fuseli 's English translation, entitled Reflections on

1530-415: Is easier to replicate by following a set of rules than style in figurative art such as painting. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often subsequently applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to music, literature and the general culture. In architecture stylistic change often follows, and is made possible by, the discovery of new techniques or materials, from

1615-466: Is imitated, if handled with reason, may assume another nature, as it were, and become one's own"). Neoclassical artists attempted to revive the spirit as well as the forms of ancient Greece and Rome. Mengs's contribution in this was considerable—he was widely regarded as the greatest living painter of his day. The French painter Jacques-Louis David met Mengs in Rome (1775–80) and was introduced through him to

1700-424: Is it clear that any such idea was articulated in antiquity   ... Pliny was attentive to changes in ways of art-making, but he presented such changes as driven by technology and wealth. Vasari, too, attributes the strangeness and, in his view the deficiencies, of earlier art to lack of technological know-how and cultural sophistication. Giorgio Vasari set out a hugely influential but much-questioned account of

1785-695: Is largely a matter of subjective impressions that are hard to analyse, but also a matter of knowing details of technique and the "hand" of different artists. Giovanni Morelli (1816 – 1891) pioneered the systematic study of the scrutiny of diagnostic minor details that revealed artists' scarcely conscious shorthand and conventions for portraying, for example, ears or hands, in Western old master paintings. His techniques were adopted by Bernard Berenson and others, and have been applied to sculpture and many other types of art, for example by Sir John Beazley to Attic vase painting . Personal techniques can be important in analysing individual style. Though artists' training

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1870-418: Is more often used to mean the overall style and atmosphere of a work, especially complex works such as paintings, that cannot so easily be subject to precise analysis. It is a somewhat outdated term in academic art history, avoided because it is imprecise. When used it is often in the context of imitations of the individual style of an artist, and it is one of the hierarchy of discreet or diplomatic terms used in

1955-576: Is often attributed with the invention of the German word Zeitgeist , but he never actually used the word, although in Lectures on the Philosophy of History , he uses the phrase der Geist seiner Zeit (the spirit of his time), writing that "no man can surpass his own time, for the spirit of his time is also his own spirit." Constructing schemes of the period styles of historic art and architecture

2040-460: Is posited to have changed approximately halfway through the 20th century and art made afterward is generally called contemporary art . Postmodernism in visual art begins and functions as a parallel to late modernism and refers to that period after the "modern" period called contemporary art. The postmodern period began during late modernism (which is a contemporary continuation of modernism), and according to some theorists postmodernism ended in

2125-490: Is seen as usually dynamic, in most periods always changing by a gradual process, though the speed of this varies greatly, from the very slow development in style typical of prehistoric art or Ancient Egyptian art to the rapid changes in Modern art styles. Style often develops in a series of jumps, with relatively sudden changes followed by periods of slower development. After dominating academic discussion in art history in

2210-486: Is set on Greek literature, to which I have devoted myself so far as I could penetrate, when good books are so scarce and expensive". In the same year, Winckelmann was appointed secretary of von Bünau's library at Nöthnitz, near Dresden . The library contained some 40,000 volumes. Winckelmann had read Homer , Herodotus , Sophocles , Xenophon , and Plato , but he found at Nöthnitz the works of such famous Enlightenment writers as Voltaire and Montesquieu . To leave behind

2295-807: The Laocoön , the so-called Antinous , and the Belvedere Torso —which represented to him the "utmost perfection of ancient sculpture". Originally, Winckelmann planned to stay in Italy only two years with the help of the grant from Dresden, but the outbreak of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) changed his plans. He was named librarian to Cardinal Passionei , who was impressed by Winckelmann's beautiful Greek writing and showed him much kindness. Winckelmann also became librarian to Alberico Archinto, who had returned to Rome and become Cardinal Archinto . After

2380-399: The art trade for the relationship between a work for sale and that of a well-known artist, with "Manner of Rembrandt " suggesting a distanced relationship between the style of the work and Rembrandt's own style. The "Explanation of Cataloguing Practice" of the auctioneers Christie's ' explains that " Manner of   ... " in their auction catalogues means "In our opinion a work executed in

2465-529: The "lust" which could be experienced with the "divine monarch" (i.e. Frederick the Great ) in Potsdam in a similar way as in "Athens and Sparta", and which he could enjoy so immensely that he would never again be allowed to. His homosexuality was recognized by his contemporaries, such as Goethe. In 1768, at the age of 50, he was murdered by a fellow guest at his hotel for reasons that remain unclear. Winckelmann

2550-430: The 19th and early 20th centuries, so-called "style art history" has come under increasing attack in recent decades, and many art historians now prefer to avoid stylistic classifications where they can. Any piece of art is in theory capable of being analysed in terms of style; neither periods nor artists can avoid having a style, except by complete incompetence, and conversely natural objects or sights cannot be said to have

2635-503: The 21st century. During the period of time corresponding to "modern art" each consecutive movement was often considered a new avant-garde . Also during the period of time referred to as "modern art" each movement was seen corresponding to a somewhat grandiose rethinking of all that came before it, concerning the visual arts. Generally there was a commonality of visual style linking the works and artists included in an art movement. Verbal expression and explanation of movements has come from

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2720-543: The Discoveries at Herculaneum") was published in 1762, and two years later Nachrichten von den neuesten Herculanischen Entdeckungen ("Report on the Latest Discoveries at Herculaneum"). From these, scholars obtained their first real information about the excavations at Pompeii. His major work, Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (1764, "The History of Ancient Art"), deeply influenced contemporary views of

2805-483: The Empress Maria Theresa were the motive, but they were not stolen after the crime. Another possibility is that Arcangeli killed Winckelmann over homosexual advances, although Winckelmann had thought that Arcangeli was only " un uomo di poco conto " ("a man of little account"). Arcangeli was executed a month later by breaking on the wheel outside the hotel in which both had been staying. Winckelmann

2890-471: The Gothic rib vault to modern metal and reinforced concrete construction. A major area of debate in both art history and archaeology has been the extent to which stylistic change in other fields like painting or pottery is also a response to new technical possibilities, or has its own impetus to develop (the kunstwollen of Riegl), or changes in response to social and economic factors affecting patronage and

2975-540: The Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture"), followed by a feigned attack on the work and a defense of its principles, ostensibly by an impartial critic. The Gedanken contains the first statement of the doctrines he afterwards developed, the ideal of "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" ( edle Einfalt und stille Größe ) and the definitive assertion, "[t]he one way for us to become great, perhaps inimitable,

3060-808: The Köllnisches Gymnasium in Berlin and the Altstädtisches Gymnasium at Salzwedel , and in 1738, at the age of 21, went as a student of theology to the University of Halle . However, Winckelmann was no theologian; he had become interested in Greek classics in his youth, but soon realized that the teachers in Halle could not satisfy his intellectual interests in this field. He nonetheless devoted himself privately to Greek and followed

3145-646: The Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks , was published in 1765, and reprinted with corrections in 1767. In 1751, the papal nuncio in Saxony, Alberico Archinto , visited Nöthnitz and was highly impressed by Winckelmann. In 1754 Winckelmann converted to the Roman Catholic Church. Goethe concluded that Winckelmann was a pagan, while Gerhard Gietmann contended that Winckelmann "died a devout and sincere Catholic"; either way, his conversion ultimately opened

3230-595: The adoption of any style in any context, and in American English is often used for the typographic style of names, as in " AT&T is also stylized as ATT and at&t": this is a specific usage that seems to have escaped dictionaries, although it is a small extension of existing other senses of the word. In a 2012 experiment at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan, a computer analysed approximately 1,000 paintings from 34 well-known artists using

3315-589: The art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and space. This type of art history is also known as formalism , or the study of forms or shapes in art. Semper, Wölfflin, and Frankl, and later Ackerman, had backgrounds in the history of architecture, and like many other terms for period styles, "Romanesque" and "Gothic" were initially coined to describe architectural styles , where major changes between styles can be clearer and more easy to define, not least because style in architecture

3400-516: The artist's style but of a later date". Mannerism , derived from the Italian maniera ("manner") is a specific phase of the general Renaissance style, but "manner" can be used very widely. In archaeology , despite modern techniques like radiocarbon dating , period or cultural style remains a crucial tool in the identification and dating not only of works of art but all classes of archaeological artefact , including purely functional ones (ignoring

3485-557: The artistic theories of Winckelmann. Earlier, while in Rome, Winckelmann met the Scottish architect Robert Adam , whom he influenced to become a leading proponent of neoclassicism in architecture. Winckelmann's ideals were later popularized in England through the reproductions of Josiah Wedgwood 's "Etruria" factory (1782). In 1760, Winckelmann's Description des pierres gravées du feu Baron de Stosch [Description of incised gems of

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3570-521: The artists themselves, sometimes in the form of an art manifesto , and sometimes from art critics and others who may explain their understanding of the meaning of the new art then being produced. In the visual arts , many artists, theorists, art critics, art collectors, art dealers and others mindful of the unbroken continuation of modernism and the continuation of modern art even into the contemporary era, ascribe to and welcome new philosophies of art as they appear. Postmodernist theorists posit that

3655-476: The conditions of the artist, as current thinking tends to emphasize, using less rigid versions of Marxist art history. Although style was well-established as a central component of art historical analysis, seeing it as the over-riding factor in art history had fallen out of fashion by World War II, as other ways of looking at art were developing, as well as a reaction against the emphasis on style; for Svetlana Alpers , "the normal invocation of style in art history

3740-555: The deaths of the two cardinals, Winckelmann was hired as librarian in the house of Alessandro Cardinal Albani , who was forming his magnificent collection of antiquities in the villa at Porta Salaria . With the aid of his new friend, the painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–79), with whom he first lived in Rome, Winckelmann devoted himself to the study of Roman antiquities and gradually acquired an unrivalled knowledge of ancient art. Winckelmann's method of careful observation allowed him to identify Roman copies of Greek art, something that

3825-614: The debate, which has also drawn on wider developments in critical theory . In 2010 Jas Elsner put it more strongly: "For nearly the whole of the 20th century, style art history has been the indisputable king of the discipline, but since the revolutions of the seventies and eighties the king has been dead", though his article explores ways in which "style art history" remains alive, and his comment would hardly be applicable to archaeology. The use of terms such as Counter- Maniera appears to be in decline, as impatience with such "style labels" grows among art historians. In 2000 Marcia B. Hall ,

3910-427: The development of style in Italian painting (mainly) from Giotto to his own Mannerist period. He stressed the development of a Florentine style based on disegno or line-based drawing, rather than Venetian colour. With other Renaissance theorists like Leon Battista Alberti he continued classical debates over the best balance in art between the realistic depiction of nature and idealization of it; this debate

3995-403: The doctrine of art as imitation ( Nachahmung ). The mimetic character of art that imitates but does not simply copy, as Winckelmann restated it, is central to any interpretation of Enlightenment classical idealism. Winckelmann stands at an early stage of the transformation of taste in the late 18th century. Winckelmann's study Sendschreiben von den Herculanischen Entdeckungen ("Letter about

4080-642: The doors of the papal library to him. On the strength of the Gedanken über die Nachahmung der Griechischen Werke , Augustus III , king of Poland and elector of Saxony, granted him a pension of 200 thalers , so that he could continue his studies in Rome. Winckelmann arrived in Rome in November 1755. His first task there was to describe the statues in the Cortile del Belvedere —the Apollo Belvedere ,

4165-423: The end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a new style which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy ( abstract art ). According to theories associated with modernism and also the concept of postmodernism , art movements are especially important during the period of time corresponding to modern art . The period of time called "modern art"

4250-624: The expression of political and social views by the artist a good deal earlier than is normally detected in the West. Calligraphy, also regarded as a fine art in the Islamic world and East Asia , brings a new area within the ambit of personal style; the ideal of Western calligraphy tends to be to suppress individual style, while graphology , which relies upon it, regards itself as a science. The painter Edward Edwards said in his Anecdotes of Painters (1808): "Mr. Gainsborough 's manner of penciling

4335-486: The father of the discipline of art history . He was one of the first to separate Greek Art into periods, and time classifications. He had a decisive influence on the rise of the Neoclassical movement during the late 18th century. His writings influenced not only a new science of archaeology and art history but Western painting, sculpture, literature and even philosophy. Winckelmann's History of Ancient Art (1764)

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4420-413: The fervid descriptive enthusiasm of passages in his work, its strong and yet graceful style, and its vivid descriptions of works of art gave it a most immediate appeal. It marked an epoch by indicating the spirit in which the study of Greek art and of ancient civilization should be approached, and the methods by which investigators might hope to attain solid results. To Winckelmann's contemporaries it came as

4505-472: The history of Greek art and of Greece . He presents a glowing picture of the political, social, and intellectual conditions which he believed tended to foster creative activity in ancient Greece. The fundamental idea of Winckelmann's artistic theories are that the goal of art is beauty, and that this goal can be attained only when individual and characteristic features are strictly subordinated to an artist's general scheme. The true artist, selecting from nature

4590-489: The idea of art movements are no longer as applicable, or no longer as discernible, as the notion of art movements had been before the postmodern era. There are many theorists however who doubt as to whether or not such an era was actually a fact; or just a passing fad. The term refers to tendencies in visual art , novel ideas and architecture , and sometimes literature . In music it is more common to speak about genres and styles instead. See also cultural movement ,

4675-406: The idea of personal style is certainly not limited to the Western tradition. In Chinese art it is just as deeply held, but traditionally regarded as a factor in the appreciation of some types of art, above all calligraphy and literati painting , but not others, such as Chinese porcelain; a distinction also often seen in the so-called decorative arts in the West. Chinese painting also allowed for

4760-423: The individual style, sometimes called the signature style , of an artist: "the notion of personal style—that individuality can be uniquely expressed not only in the way an artist draws, but also in the stylistic quirks of an author's writing (for instance)— is perhaps an axiom of Western notions of identity". The identification of individual styles is especially important in the attribution of works to artists, which

4845-467: The invention of art historians and would not have been understood by the practitioners of those styles. Some originated as terms of derision, including Gothic , Baroque , and Rococo . Cubism on the other hand was a conscious identification made by a few artists; the word itself seems to have originated with critics rather than painters, but was rapidly accepted by the artists. Western art, like that of some other cultures, most notably Chinese art , has

4930-524: The late Baron of Stosch] appeared, followed in 1762 by his Anmerkungen über die Baukunst der Alten ("Observations on the Architecture of the Ancients"), which included an account of the temples at Paestum . In 1758 and 1762, he visited Naples to observe the archaeological excavations being conducted at Pompeii and Herculaneum . "Despite his association with Albani, Winckelmann steered clear of

5015-485: The lectures of Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten , who coined the term " aesthetics ". With the intention of becoming a physician, in 1740 Winckelmann attended medical classes at Jena . He also taught languages. From 1743 to 1748, he was the deputy headmaster of the gymnasium of Seehausen in the Altmark but Winckelmann felt that work with children was not his true calling. Moreover, his means were insufficient: his salary

5100-460: The phenomena suited to his purpose and combining them through the exercise of his imagination, creates an ideal type in which normal proportions are maintained, and particular parts, such as muscles and veins, are not permitted to break the harmony of the general outlines. In 1768, Winckelmann journeyed north over the Alps, but Tyrol depressed him and he decided to return to Italy. However, his friend,

5185-576: The question of whether purely functional artefacts exist). The identification of individual styles of artists or artisans has also been proposed in some cases even for remote periods such as the Ice Age art of the European Upper Paleolithic . As in art history, formal analysis of the morphology (shape) of individual artefacts is the starting point. This is used to construct typologies for different types of artefacts, and by

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5270-482: The relatively few medieval writings on aesthetics did not greatly develop a concept of style in art, or analysis of it, and though Renaissance and Baroque writers on art are greatly concerned with what we would call style, they did not develop a coherent theory of it, at least outside architecture: Artistic styles shift with cultural conditions; a self-evident truth to any modern art historian, but an extraordinary idea in this period [Early Renaissance and earlier]. Nor

5355-453: The sculptor and restorer Bartolomeo Cavaceppi managed to persuade him to travel to Munich and Vienna, where he was received with honor by Maria Theresa . On his way back, he was murdered in Trieste on 8 June 1768, in a hotel bed by a fellow traveller, a man named Francesco Arcangeli . The true reason for the murder is not known. One hypothesis argues that the medals given to Winckelmann by

5440-532: The shady world of art dealing which had compromised the scholarly respectability of such brilliant, if much less systematic antiquarians as Francesco Ficoroni and the Baron Stosch ." Winckelmann's poverty may have played a part: the trade in antiquities was an expensive and speculative game. In 1763, with Albani's advocacy, he was appointed Pope Clement XIII 's Prefect of Antiquities. From 1763, while retaining his position with Albani, Winckelmann worked as

5525-491: The simplification of line, form, and relationships of space and color", and observed that "[s]tylized art reduces visual perception to constructs of pattern in line, surface elaboration and flattened space". Ancient, traditional, and modern art , as well as popular forms such as cartoons or animation very often use stylized representations, so for example The Simpsons use highly stylized depictions, as does traditional African art . The two Picasso paintings illustrated at

5610-569: The spartan atmosphere of Prussia came as a great relief for Winckelmann. His major duty involved assisting von Bünau in writing a book on the Holy Roman Empire and helping collect material for it; during this period he made several visits to the collection of antiquities at Dresden, but his description of its best paintings remained unfinished. The treasures there, nevertheless, awakened in Winckelmann an intense interest in art, which

5695-413: The subject to be found in ancient writers; and his wide knowledge and active imagination enabled him to offer many fruitful suggestions as to periods about which he had little direct information. To the still existing works of art, he applied a minute empirical scrutiny. Many of his conclusions, based on inadequate evidence of Roman copies, would be modified or reversed by subsequent researchers. Nonetheless,

5780-476: The succession of schools of archaeological theory in the last century, from culture-historical archaeology to processual archaeology and finally the rise of post-processual archaeology in recent decades has not significantly reduced the importance of the study of style in archaeology, as a basis for classifying objects before further interpretation. Stylization and stylized (or stylisation and stylised in (non-Oxford) British English , respectively) have

5865-404: The superiority of Greek art. It was translated into French in 1766 and later into English and Italian. Among others, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing based many of the ideas in his Laocoön (1766) on Winckelmann's views on harmony and expression in the visual arts. In the historical portions of his writings, Winckelmann used not only the works of art he himself had studied but the scattered notices on

5950-481: The technique of seriation a relative dating based on style for a site or group of sites is achieved where scientific absolute dating techniques cannot be used, in particular where only stone, ceramic or metal artefacts or remains are available, which is often the case. Sherds of pottery are often very numerous in sites from many cultures and periods, and even small pieces may be confidently dated by their style. In contrast to recent trends in academic art history,

6035-487: The top of this page show a movement to a more stylized representation of the human figure within the painter's style, and the Uffington White Horse is an example of a highly stylized prehistoric depiction of a horse. Motifs in the decorative arts such as the palmette or arabesque are often highly stylized versions of the parts of plants. Even in art that is in general attempting mimesis or "realism",

6120-565: The ultimate sources of inspiration of many works of art supposed to be connected with Roman history were to be found in Homer . Winckelmann's masterpiece, the Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("The History of Art in Antiquity"), published in 1764, was soon recognized as a permanent contribution to European literature. In this work, "Winckelmann's most significant and lasting achievement

6205-402: Was a German art historian and archaeologist . He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek , Greco-Roman and Roman art . "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology ", Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art . Many consider him

6290-414: Was a major concern of 19th century scholars in the new and initially mostly German-speaking field of art history , with important writers on the broad theory of style including Carl Friedrich von Rumohr , Gottfried Semper , and Alois Riegl in his Stilfragen of 1893, with Heinrich Wölfflin and Paul Frankl continuing the debate in the 20th century. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among

6375-452: Was before Modernism essentially imitative, relying on taught technical methods, whether learnt as an apprentice in a workshop or later as a student in an academy, there was always room for personal variation. The idea of technical "secrets" closely guarded by the master who developed them, is a long-standing topos in art history from Vasari's probably mythical account of Jan van Eyck to the secretive habits of Georges Seurat . However

6460-562: Was born in poverty in Stendal in the Margraviate of Brandenburg . His father, Martin Winckelmann, worked as a cobbler, while his mother, Anna Maria Meyer, was the daughter of a weaver. Winckelmann's early years were full of hardship, but his academic interests pushed him forward. Later in Rome, when he had become a famous scholar, he wrote: "One gets spoiled here; but God owed me this; in my youth I suffered too much." Winckelmann attended

6545-450: Was buried in the churchyard of Trieste Cathedral . Domenico Rossetti De Scander  [ it ] and Cesare Pagnini  [ it ] documented the last week of Winckelmann's life; Heinrich Alexander Stoll translated the Italian document, the so-called "Mordakte Winckelmann", into German. Winckelmann's writings are key to understanding the modern European discovery of ancient (sometimes idealized) Greece, neoclassicism , and

6630-442: Was deepened by his association with various artists, particularly the painter Adam Friedrich Oeser (1717–1799)—a future friend of and influence on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe —who encouraged Winckelmann in his aesthetic studies. (Winckelmann subsequently exercised a powerful influence over Goethe.) In 1755, Winckelmann published his Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst ("Thoughts on

6715-596: Was one of the first books written in German to become a classic of European literature. His subsequent influence on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Gottfried Herder , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Hölderlin , Heinrich Heine , Friedrich Nietzsche , Stefan George and Oswald Spengler has been provocatively called "the Tyranny of Greece over Germany". Winckelmann was homosexual , and open homoeroticism informed his writings on aesthetics. In 1752, he mentioned

6800-506: Was so low that he had to rely on his students' parents for free meals. He was thus obliged to accept a tutorship near Magdeburg . Whilst working as a tutor for the powerful Lamprecht family, he fell into unrequited love with the handsome Lamprecht son. This was one of a series of such loves throughout his life. His enthusiasm for the male form excited Winckelmann's budding admiration of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. In 1748, Winckelmann wrote to Count Heinrich von Bünau : "[L]ittle value

6885-686: Was so peculiar to himself, that his work needed no signature". Examples of strongly individual styles include: the Cubist art of Pablo Picasso , the Pop Art style of Andy Warhol , Impressionist style of Vincent Van Gogh , Drip Painting by Jackson Pollock "Manner" is a related term, often used for what is in effect a sub-division of a style, perhaps focused on particular points of style or technique. While many elements of period style can be reduced to characteristic forms or shapes, that can adequately be represented in simple line-drawn diagrams, "manner"

6970-447: Was the work entitled Monumenti antichi inediti ("Unpublished monuments of antiquity", 1767–1768), prefaced by a Trattato preliminare , which presented a general sketch of the history of art. The plates in this work are representations of objects which had either been falsely explained or not explained at all. Winckelmann's explanations were of tremendous use to the future science of archaeology, by showing through observational method that

7055-470: Was to continue until the 19th century and the advent of Modernism . The theorist of Neoclassicism , Johann Joachim Winckelmann , analysed the stylistic changes in Greek classical art in 1764, comparing them closely to the changes in Renaissance art , and " Georg Hegel codified the notion that each historical period will have a typical style", casting a very long shadow over the study of style. Hegel

7140-523: Was to produce a thorough, comprehensive and lucid chronological account of all antique art—including that of the Egyptians and Etruscans." This was the first work to define in the art of a civilization an organic growth, maturity, and decline. Here, it included the revelatory tale told by a civilization's art and artifacts—these, if we look closely, tell us their own story of cultural factors, such as climate, freedom, and craft. Winckelmann sets forth both

7225-415: Was unusual at that time—Roman culture was considered the ultimate achievement of Antiquity. His friend Mengs became the channel through which Winckelmann's ideas were realized in art and spread around Europe. ("The only way for us to become great, yes, inimitable, if it is possible, is the imitation of the Greeks", Winckelmann declared in the Gedanken . With imitation he did not mean slavish copying: "... what

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