Johann Winckelmann was an archeologist and an art historian who was born in Stendal, Germany on December 9, 1717. He is regarded as the father of modern archeology because of his studies of the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy.
As a child, Johann was influenced by the ancient Greek culture, especially Homer. He studied theology and medicine at Halle and Jena Universities. In 1748 he discovered the world of ancient Greek art while serving as a librarian near Dresdan. There he wrote the essay Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (1755). This was recognized as a manifesto of the Greek ideal in education and art. He also wrote Geschichte der Kunst des Alterhums (1764, History of the Art of Antiquity).
In 1763, Johann became the Superintendent of Roman Antiquities, but soon he rose to be the position of Librarian at the Vatican and later became the Secretary to Cardinal Albani, who had an extensive collection of classical art. Winckelmann never made the trip to Greece he had always intended to do. Even so, his writings reawakened the taste for classical art and were responsible for generating the neoclassical movement in the arts.
On June 8, 1768 on his way back to Rome from Germany and Austria, he was murdered by a chance acquaintance in Trieste, Italy, which was where he was buried.
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Written by Joseph Michael Adam
Edited by Marcy L. Voelker, 2007