Winckelmann, JOHANN JOACHIM, first appreciative critic and historian of Greek art, was born of poor parents, 9th December 1717, at Stendal in Prussian Saxony. After studying for a time at a gymnasium in Berlin, he went in 1738 to the university of Halle as a student of theology, which he gave up for the study of medicine and mathematics at Jena. For a time a private tutor, and then rector of a school, as librarian by Count von Bunan he was taken to Nöthnitz, close to Dresden. He had frequent opportunities of inspecting the famous treasures of art accumulated there; he also made the acquaintance of artists and distinguished dilettanti; and the enthusiasm was awakened which determined his subsequent career. To the theory and history of art he now resolved to devote himself; and on being thrown into the society of the pope's nuncio, Cardinal Archinto, he was induced, after some hesitation, to become a Roman Catholic, on a promise of an appointment being procured for him which would enable him to proceed to Rome. Thither as librarian to Cardinal Passionei he repaired in 1755, having previously published at Dresden a treatise on the imitation of the antique (1754) which secured him a small pension from Augustus III. of Saxony. At Rome he prosecuted his studies with the utmost ardour, and every facility was afforded him. In 1758 he visited Naples to examine the celebrated remains of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Pæstum, and went also to Florence for the purpose of cataloguing the famous collection of antique gems belonging to Baron de Stosch, a labour which occupied him for nine months. Soon after Cardinal Albani appointed him his librarian. The first-fruits of his studies in Italy appeared in his treatise on ancient architecture (Über die Baukunst der Alten, 1762), and two years afterwards the great work of his life, on which he had long been engaged, the History of Ancient Art (Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums), was issued from the press of Dresden. This exposition of the principles and history of Greek art may fairly be described as epoch-making, not for Germany merely but for Europe; and if in many points corrections and modifications of his statements have been made, all subsequent progress in æsthetics is largely an outcome of this work, which from the very first was studied with avidity by men like Goethe and Lessing. Winckelmann also gave to the world the result of his researches at Herculaneum, and in 1766 his Monumenti Antichi Inediti, an elaborate work with plates, besides an allegory and many contributions to the periodicals of the time. In 1763 he was made superintendent of all antiquities in and about Rome. In 1768 Winckelmann, by this time famous throughout Europe, set out to revisit Germany. His destination was Berlin; but after visiting Munich and Vienna (where he was received with flattering attentions by Maria Theresa), he resolved to return to Rome. On the way thither he was murdered in a hotel at Trieste (8th June 1768) by a fellow-traveller, Arcangeli, to whom he had shown some tempting gold coins and curios.
An edition of his works appeared in 1808-20; the fullest is that by Eiselein (12 vols. 1825-29). See the Life by Justi (2 vols. 1866-73). There are busts or monuments of Winckelmann in Stendal, Rome, and Berlin; and an annual memorial celebration takes place at Rome and several of the German universities.