Winckelmann's Artistic Thought Studies

Johann Joachim Winckelmann is a remarkable expert on art history, esthetics theorist and connoisseur during the age of enlightenment in 18th century in Germany. He esteems classical beauty highly and acclaims the quality of the ancient Greek art as "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur", summoning the people to study and imitate the ancient Greek art. He also employs the sociological method to analyze the base and reasons of the development of the Greek art, which has provided a new model for the art history writing. Besides, he is the first person to classify the Greek and Egyptian art with the form of style. All of these are the great creations made by Winckelmann in art history. Thus he is crowned as "the father of the modern art history". Moreover, his achievements in esthetics cannot be neglected either. He firstly develops esthetic researches into the fine arts domain. His viewpoints of ideal beauty directly influence some estheticians like Goethe, Herder and Hegel, as well as artists like David, Canova and Thorwaldsen, who have laid a good foundation for the German classicism formation. Winckelmann's artistic thoughts mainly concentrated in his famous work "History of Ancient Art" and the other six important dissertations, the publication of which has evoked strong reactions in Europe, and has aroused great enthusiasm of the people to study the Greek and Rome art, making the democratic and liberal Greek spirit penetrate into the hearts of the people and powerfully stimulate the awakening of the people.This thesis focuses on Winckelmann's main esthetics thought, artistic viewpoints as well as his artistic methodology. Besides, it has also discussed what kind of far-reaching influences Winckelmann's artistic thought has exerted to the others and the later generation. The whole thesis is divided into eight chapters. Closely based on the main line of studying and imitating the ancient Greek art, the thesis elaborates Winckelmann's artistic thought. What is the core of Winckelmann's artistic thought? Why does he esteem the ancient Greek art so much? In what aspects does the ancient Greek art deeply attract and move Winckelmann? What kind of profound meanings do exist behind Winckelmann's appreciation of the ancient Greek art? How doesWinckelmann melt his esthetics viewpoints in the history writing? What is his contribution? What is the limit of his thought? These questions are not all, but they all are the ones we have to reply in the study of Winckelmann's artistic thought. While this thesis explains the questions, it also makes brief discussion on the contents rarely related to in China. Since they are precious, the inquiries into them are of vital importance to the study of Winckelmann's artistic thought. They include Winckelmann's esthetics viewpoints about the other countries except Greece.