Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Translator's Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- On Art
- Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and the Art of Sculpture
- Open Letter on Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and the Art of Sculpture
- Explanation of Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and the Art of Sculpture and Response to the Open Letter on These Thoughts
- More Mature Thoughts on the Imitation of the Ancients with Respect to Drawing and the Art of Sculpture
- Description of the Most Excellent Paintings in the Dresden Gallery
- Reflections on Art
- Recalling the Observation of Works of Art
- On Grace in Works of Art
- Description of the Torso in the Belvedere in Rome
- Treatise on the Capacity for Sensitivity to the Beautiful in Art and the Method of Teaching It
- On Architecture
- On Archaeology
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
Reflections on Art
from On Art
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Translator's Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- On Art
- Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and the Art of Sculpture
- Open Letter on Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and the Art of Sculpture
- Explanation of Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and the Art of Sculpture and Response to the Open Letter on These Thoughts
- More Mature Thoughts on the Imitation of the Ancients with Respect to Drawing and the Art of Sculpture
- Description of the Most Excellent Paintings in the Dresden Gallery
- Reflections on Art
- Recalling the Observation of Works of Art
- On Grace in Works of Art
- Description of the Torso in the Belvedere in Rome
- Treatise on the Capacity for Sensitivity to the Beautiful in Art and the Method of Teaching It
- On Architecture
- On Archaeology
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
Summary
Reflections
There is a similarity between judging works of art and reading books: you believe that you are understanding what you read, but when you have to explain it, you do not understand it. It is one thing to read Homer, but it is quite different to translate him while you are reading. Looking at art with good taste and looking at it with understanding are two different things, and from one generally valid thought you cannot conclude that someone has knowledge of it. Just as it does not follow that Cicero had thoroughly understood what he had written when he says that Canachus and Calamis had more hardness than Polycletus.
It is difficult to write with brevity, and not every work lends itself to it. For in writing about something more fully, you cannot so easily be taken at your word. But our times require brevity especially because of the large number of writings available. The man who wrote to someone saying “I did not have time to make this letter shorter” recognized what you needed to do to write with brevity.
Plato never speaks of himself in his writings.
In my attempt at writing a History of Art my intention was to proceed more like Herodotus than like Thucydides: the former starts from the times when the Greeks began to become great and stops with the humiliation of their enemies; the latter starts with the times when the Greeks began to feel unhappy.
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- Johann Joachim Winckelmann on Art, Architecture, and Archaeology , pp. 127 - 128Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013