Johann Joachim Winckelmann - Works

Works

The most accessible edition of selected works, in condensed forms, is David Irwin, Winckelmann: Selected Writings on Art (London: Phaidon) 1972; the critical edition is Walther Rehm and Hellmut Sichtermann, eds., Kleine Schriften, Vorreden, Entwürfen (Berlin), 1968.

1. Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst ("Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture"), followed by a feigned attack on the work, and a defence of its principles, nominally by an impartial critic. (First edition of only 50 copies 1755, 2nd ed. 1756)
2. Description des pierres gravées du feu Baron de Stosch (1760).
3. Anmerkungen über die Baukunst der Alten ("Remarks on the Architecture of the Ancients"), including an account of the temples at Paestum (1762)
4. Sendschreiben von den Herculanischen Entdeckungen ("Letter About the Discoveries at Herculaneum") (1762).
5. ("Essay on the Beautiful in Art") (1763), an epistolary essay addressed to Friedrich Rudolph von Berg.
6. "Nachrichten von den neuesten Herculanischen Entdeckungen" ("Report About the Latest Herculanean Discoveries") (1764).
7. Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("History of Ancient Art") (1764).
8. Versuch einer Allegorie ("Attempt at an Allegory") (1766), which, although containing the results of much thought and reading, is not conceived in a thoroughly critical spirit.
9. Monumenti antichi inediti (1767–1768), prefaced by a Trattato preliminare, presenting 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.
10. Briefe an Bianconi ("Letters to Bianconi"), which were published eleven years after his death, in the Antologia Romana.