The Future of Winckelmann’s Classical Form

Winckelmann’s thought and writing are routinely acknowledged to have had a profound influence on the artistic practices of half-century after his death, known under label ‘Neoclassicism’. Standard accounts modernism in arts, however, assume that this came an abrupt end around 1815. According such accounts, anti-classical reaction followed Battle Waterloo demise Neoclassicism was itself motive force generation modern art modernism. This paper argues, contrary, ideas not only remained relevant, but gained power through generations fall Napoleon. Mediated by critics artists among whom Walter Pater Frederic Leighton serve as principal examples, made decisive contribution twentieth-century In particular, articulation both criticism practice about classical form, indebted Winckelmann, subtler more complex impact modernist doctrine ‘formalism’ than literary or historians acknowledged. A renewed attention form will help future scholars write nuanced account visual arts. More importantly, it call projects been excluded from histories due reductive assumptions classicism inherently contradictory. The concentrates case study artist whose historical importance aesthetic merit occluded thinking kind.