WINCKELMANN, (J.J.) Histoire de l’art chez les anciens, Par Winckelmann; Traduite de l’allemand; avec des notes historiques et critiques de differens auteurs. Tome Premier [-Tome II. Deuxième partie.] A Paris, Chez H.J. Jansen et Comp. (vols I & II), chez Gide (last volume), 1793-1803. With 3 engraved frontispieces, 3 title vignettes, engraved head- and tailpieces, many fine half-page engravings and 65 engraved plates. Two volumes bound in three. cii, 695, [1] pp.; [4], 692 pp.; [4], 405, [3] pp. 4to. Nineteenth century blind and gilt tooled calf, spines with raised bands, gilt lettering, inside dentelles, marbled edges, joints and extremities a bit shaved, first two volumes with short splits to joints but firmly holding.

€ 900

Brunet v, col. 1463: “Bonne édition, dont les 2 prem. volumes parurent d’abord en 1793, sous le titre Oeuvres de Winckelmann“; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares et Précieux, vol. vi, p. 461.
“The most influential voice in the Enlightenment reassessment and valorization of ancient Greek art, Winckelmann also shaped two disciplines that emerged in the eighteenth century, art history and archaeology. (…..) Winckelmann’s growing reputation as the foremost classical scholar, as well as his appointments and personal connections, put him at the center of an influential circle of art connoisseurs, artists, and intellectuals. (…..) History of Ancient Art, groundbreaking because of its historical, developmental account of the origins and development of art in various periods and cultures, largely viewed Roman art, by contrast to that of the Greeks, as imitative in a negative sense, a decadent fall from the perfection of the Greek ideal. (…..) Artistic styles, as Winckelmann argued, developed in response to factors such as climate and social and political structures conducive to freedom. Since, as he saw it, these external conditions were ideal in ancient Greece, Greek art had developed in perfect harmony with nature” (Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, vol. iv, pp. 259 ff.) From 1758 on, Winckelmann was employed as a librarian and curator by Cardinal Alessandro Albani, founder of one of the most important eighteenth-century collections of classical antiquities. He was also librarian at the Vatican and prefect of Roman antiquities. Winckelmann’s interpretations of ancient arts were enormously influential and his influence can be traced among numerous German thinkers -including Johann Gottfried Herder, Goethe, Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, and Hegel. – The half-titles of the first two volumes entitled “Oeuvres Complettes de Winckelmann” as indicated by Brunet. Some pages a bit browned or spotted, but only ocassionally, a nice copy on good paper and with ample margins.