WINCKELMANN, JOHANN JOACHIM, was born at Stendal, in the old Marche of Brandenburg, in 1717. He was the son of a shoemaker. Though destined by his birth to occupy an humble position in an obscure town of Germany, yet he raised himself to the office of president of antiquities in the Vatican. His course of study appears to have been very desultory, but he contrived to spend two years in the university of Halle. After having been seven years rector of the school of Seehausen, near Salswedel, he went into Saxony, where he resided seven years more, and was librarian to Count Bürau at Nöthenitz. When he left this place in 1754, he went to Dresden, where he formed an acquaintance with the ablest artists, and particularly with Oeser, an excellent painter, and one of the best draughtsmen of the age. Among other acquaintances formed by Winckelmann at this time was Monsignor Archinto, pope's nuncio, who, on learning the great acquirements and the obscure position of the lad, proposed to him to become a proselyte to the Romish faith, on condition that the pope's representative should obtain for him a situation in the Vatican library. Winckelmann wandered about like one in a dream, weighing, in proportion to his light, the different aspects of the question thus opened up
Winkel- to him. It need not astonish any one who knows human
hand. nature, and who is acquainted with the eager ambition of
Winckelmann at that time, to be told that he recanted
Protestantism, and was received into the bosom of the
Romish Church with no small degree of quiet chuckling on
the part of the cunning nuncio. In September 1756, he
set out for Italy, and arrived at Rome in December follow-
ing. His principal object was to see the Vatican library,
and to examine the ruins of Herculaneum.
Winckelmann carried with him into Italy a sense of
beauty and art, which led him instantly to admire the
masterpieces of the Vatican. He soon increased his knowl-
edge; and it was not till after he had thus purified his
taste that he began to think of the explanation of other
monuments, in which his great learning could not fail to
distinguish him. In 1756 he planned his Restoration of
Ancient Statues, and a larger work on the Taste of the
Greek Artists; and he designed an account of the galleries
of Rome and Italy, beginning with a volume on the Bel-
videre statues, in the manner of Richardson, who, he says,
only ran over Rome. He also intended a history of the
corruption of taste in art, the restoration of statues, and an
illustration of the obscure points of mythology. All these
different essays led him to his History of Ancient Art,
published in 1764, and his Monumenti Antichi Inediti, in
1766. It must however be confessed, that the first of these
works has not all the clearness and precision that might be
expected in its general plan and division of its parts and
objects; but it has enlarged and extended the ideas both
of antiquaries and collectors. The description of the gems
and sculptures of the Stosch cabinet contributed not a little
to extend Winckelmann's knowledge. Few persons have
opportunities of contemplating such vast collections. Win-
kelmann's Monumenti Antichi Inediti, of which he had
begun the third volume in 1767, secured him the high
esteem of antiquaries. Had he lived, we should have had
a work long wished for; a complete collection of the bas-
reliefs discovered from the time of Bartoli, the greater part
of which were in the possession of Cardinal Albani.
When Cardinal Albani succeeded to the place of librarian
of the Vatican, he endeavoured to procure a place in the
Hebrew department for Winckelmann, who refused a can-
ony because he would not take the tonsure. In 1761 the
Elector of Saxony gave him, unsolicited, the place of Coun-
sellor Richter, the direction of the royal cabinet of medals
and antiquities at Dresden. Upon the death of Venuti,
1762, he was appointed president of the antiquities of the
apostolic chamber, with power over all discoveries and ex-
portations of antiquities and pictures. This is a post of
honour, with an income of 160 scudi per annum. He had
a prospect of the place of president of antiquities in the
Vatican, about to be created, at sixteen scudi per month,
and was named corresponding member of the Academy of
Inscriptions. The King of Prussia offered him, by Col.
Quintus Ielius, the place of librarian and director of his
cabinet of medals and antiquities, vacant by the death of
Gautier de la Croze, with a handsome appointment. He
made no scruple of accepting the offer; but when it came
to the pope's ears, he added an appointment out of his own
purse, and retained him at Rome.
In April 1768, he left Rome to travel with the sculptor
Cavaceppi over Germany and Switzerland. When he came
to Vienna, he was so pleased with the reception he met
with, that he made a longer stay there than he had in-
tended. But being suddenly seized with an extraordinary
desire to return to Rome, he set out for Italy, deferring his
visits to his friends in Germany to a future opportunity.
As he passed through Trieste, he was assassinated, June
8, 1786, by a wretch named Arcangeli, a native of Campiglio,
a town in the territory of Pistoia, with whom he had
formed an acquaintance on the road.
Perhaps the celebrity of Winckelmann is rather that of
a pioneer in the history of ancient art than as an original
recorder of ancient art treasures. Previous to the time of
Goethe, who wrote a masterly dissertation on the genius
and writings of Winckelmann in 1805, the reputation of
the art-historian was limited to the learned; but now the
name of Winckelmann is known in every corner of the
civilized world.