Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums
FIRST EDITION. "With the publication of his masterpiece, the 'History of the Art of the Ancients', his fame had become widespread. This was indeed the first work in the German language to achieve universal acclaim. Winckelmann had drawn attention for the first time to the importance of Greek ideals for the modern world, and, with his unique acquaintance with the surviving examples of classical art, amplified by wide and specialized reading, his authority was unquestioned" (PMM). “Winckelmann’s History had a remarkable impact for a scholarly antiquarian publication. It presented a comprehensive synthesis of available knowledge about the visual artefacts of the ancient world... Four main sculptural traditions were discussed in detail – the ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman. What particularly caught the imagination of Winckelmann’s contemporaries, however, and still assures the book a place among the classics of art history, is what Winckelmann himself envisaged as its core, the eloquent and hugely ambitious attempt to redefine the history and aesthetics of the ancient Greek tradition. –Alex Potts, Flesh and the Ideal: Winckelmann and the Origins of the History“[Winckelmann’s] magnum opus is in a class apart, for it completely revolutionized the study of art by treating it organically (Winckelmann was the first to do so) as part of the growth of the human race” –E.M. Butler Quarto. Beautifully bound in recent full sprinkled calf, elaborate gilt tooling to boards, elaborately gilt spine in 6 compartments. Title skillfully mounted, occasional toning and scattered foxing throughout. [With:] Anmerkungen ber die Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums. Dresden: Waltherische Hof-Buchhandlung, 1764 and 1767. 2 works in 4 volumes bound in one. (The text of Anmerkungen ber die Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums is quite toned, much more so than the primary volume.)
$4,500 (Retail)