(Abbé John), was born at Stendall, in the old Marche of Brandenburg, in 1718. His father was a shoemaker. This wonderful man, to all appearance destined by his birth to superintend a little school in an obscure town of Germany, raised himself to the office of president of antiquities in the Vatican. After having been seven years professor in the college of Seehausen near Salfeld, he went into Saxony, where he resided seven years more, and was librarian to count Bunau at Nothenitz. When he left this place, 1754, he went to Dresden, where he formed an acquaintance with the ablest artists, and particularly with M. Oefer, an excellent painter, and one of the best draughtsmen of the age. In that year he abjured Lutheranism, and embraced the Roman Catholic religion. In September 1755, he set out for Italy, and arrived at Rome in December following. His principal object was to see the Vatican library, and to examine the ruins of Herculaneum.

Mr Winckleman carried with him into Italy a sense of beauty and art, which led him instantly to admire the master-pieces of the Vatican, and with which he began to study them. He soon increased his knowledge; and it was not till after he had thus purified his taste and conceived an idea of ideal beauty, which led him into the greatest secrets of art, that he began to think of the explanation of other monuments, in which his great learning could not fail to distinguish him. His erudition enabled him to fill up his principal plan of writing the "History of Art." In 1756 he planned his "Reformation of Ancient Statues," and a larger work on the "Taste of the Greek Artists;" and designed an account of the galleries of Rome and Italy, beginning with a volume on the Belvedere 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 Art," and his "Monumenti Inediti." 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 sulphurs of the Stoich cabinet contributed not a little to extend Mr Winckleman's knowledge. Few persons have opportunities of contemplating such vast collections. The engravings of Lippé and count Caylus are all that many can arrive at. Mr Winckleman's Monumenti Inediti, of which he had begun the third vol. 1767, seem to have secured him the 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 to the present, the greater part of which are in the possession of cardinal Albani.

When cardinal Albani succeeded to the place of librarian of the Vatican, he endeavoured to get a place for the Hebrew language for Winckleman, who refused a canonry, because he would not take the tonsure. The elector of Saxony gave him, 1761, unfolicited, the place of counsellor Richter, the direction of the royal cabinet of medals and antiquities at Dresden. Upon the death of the Abbé Venuti, 1762, he was appointed president of the antiquities of the apostolic chamber, with power over all discoveries and exportations of antiquities and pictures. This is a post of honour, with an income of 165 scudi per annum. He had a prospect of the place of president of antiquities in the Vatican, going to be created at 16 feudi per month, and was named corresponding member of the Academy of Inscriptions. The king of Prussia offered him by Col. Quintus Icilius the place of librarian and director of his cabinet of medals and antiquities, void by the death of M. 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 kept him at Rome.

In April 1768, he left Rome, to go with M. Cavaceppi over Germany and Switzerland. When he came to Vienna, Winckle he was so pleased with the reception he met with, that he made a longer stay there than he had intended. But, being suddenly seized with a secret uneasiness and extraordinary desire to return to Rome, he set out for Italy, putting off his visits to his friends in Germany to a future opportunity. As he passed through Trieste, he was affianced, June 8, 1768, by a wretch named Arcangeli, a native of Campiglio, a town in the territory of Piemont, with whom he had made an acquaintance on the road. This miscreant had been condemned for a robbery to work in fetters four years, and then to be banished the Austrian territories, on an oath never to return. He had obtained a mitigation of one of his sentences, and retired to Venice; but, changing his quarters backwards and forwards, he was so reduced in circumstances that he at length took up his lodgings at the inn to which the Abbé happened to come. Arcangeli paid such affidavit court to him, that he entirely gained his confidence; and having been favoured with a sight of the valuable presents which he had received at Vienna, formed a design to murder and rob him. He bought a new sharp knife on purpose; and as the Abbé (who had in the most friendly manner invited him to Rome) was sitting down in his chair, early in the morning, he threw a rope over his head, and before he could disengage himself, stabbed him in five different places. The Abbé had still strength to get down to the ground floor, and call for help; and being laid on a bed in the midst of the most violent pain, he had composure sufficient to receive the last sacraments, and to make his will, in which he appointed cardinal Alexander Albani his residuary legatee, and expired in the afternoon. The murderer was soon after apprehended; and executed on the wheel opposite the inn, June 26.

Abbé Winckelmann was a middle-sized man; he had a very low forehead, sharp nose, and little black hollow eyes, which gave him an aspect rather gloomy than otherwise. If he had any thing graceful in his physiognomy, it was his mouth. A fiery and impetuous disposition often threw him into extremes. Naturally enthusiastic, he often indulged an extravagant imagination; but as he possessed a strong and solid judgment, he knew how to give things a just and intrinsic value. In consequence of this turn of mind, as well as a neglected education, a cautious reserve was a quality he little knew. If he was bold in his decisions as an author, he was still more so in his conversation, and has often made his friends tremble for his temerity. If ever man knew what friendship was, that man was Mr Winckelmann, who regularly practised all its duties; and for this reason he could boast of having friends among persons of every rank and condition.