Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, << VIHNG kuhl `mahn, YOH hahn YOH ah kihm` >> (1717-1768), was a German scholar who has been called the father of both archaeology and art history. His work was the first systematic study of ancient Greek and Roman art. Winckelmann showed that art objects can reveal as much important information about the history of a culture as writings do. His belief in Greek art as an ideal greatly influenced many writers and artists of his time.
Winckelmann was born on Dec. 9, 1717, in Stendal, Prussia. As a boy, he learned Greek and Latin so he could read Homer and other ancient writers. Winckelmann later studied theology and medicine, but he earned his living as a teacher and a librarian.
In 1754 and 1755, Winckelmann studied art in Dresden. He then moved to Italy, where he did most of the work for which he became known. His reports of the excavations at the ancient Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were widely read. Art historians still use his principal work, Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (The History of Ancient Art, 1764). He died on June 8, 1768.
