Introduction · Johann Joachim Winckelmann and the Birth of Art History · Piranesi in Rome

The modern discipline of art history is founded upon the dialogue between style and historical context, positing a progression of well-defined styles formed by the cultural concerns of their historical moment. This conception of a cultural-historical model of art history owes much to the work of the prominent 18th century German scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768). Winckelmann’s writing on Greek and Roman antiquity in his seminal 1764 work, The History of the Art of Antiquity, was instrumental in precipitating a shift from thinking of Classicism as a source of virtue and good taste, to a legitimate discipline concerned with tracing the development of Greek civilization, of which the finest Classical sculptures or fragments were believed to be representative objects. Thus, by defining objects as products of their particular time, one of Winckelmann’s chief contributions was to historicize Classicism, transforming it from a timeless ideal to the basis of a modern discipline. W

The modern discipline of art history is founded upon the dialogue between style and historical context, positing a progression of well-defined styles formed by the cultural concerns of their historical moment. This conception of a cultural-historical model of art history owes much to the work of the prominent 18th century German scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768). Winckelmann’s writing on Greek and Roman antiquity in his seminal 1764 work, The History of the Art of Antiquity, was instrumental in precipitating a shift from thinking of Classicism as a source of virtue and good taste,