Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture

The book which sparked the German Hellenism movement in 1755, now back in print in a definitive new edition featuring a new Foreword by Bronze Age Pervert, an Introduction by Winckelmann scholar Henry Hatfield and an Afterword by the great Aestheticist Walter Pater. “There is but one way for the moderns to become great, and perhaps unequalled–by imitating the ancients” “In the first place, and this is fundamental, the Greeks were the most beautiful of peoples. To explain this, Winckelmann, following Montesquieu, speaks of the influence of the Greek climate, which was warm, sunny, and yet moderate. Many other factors are taken into account, above all the superior training of Greek youth, especially the stress upon athletics, resulting in the development of strong, healthy bodies, free of fat, with a contour which later ages have never equalled. Light, sensible clothing was worn, or often none at all, and Greek artists could study the human form without resort to hired models. Smallpox and venereal diseases did not exist. Strong parents, possessed of ‘beautiful blood,’ tried consciously to produce beautiful children. Even contests in beauty were held. The whole civilization, in contrast to the Egyptian, had a free and joyful character; this was caused in large part by the freedom granted by Greek laws and customs.” –from the Introduction by Henry Hatfield