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Continental, Illuminations & MSS.
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Ref: CO14551 |
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Storia delle arti del disegno presso gli antichi tradotta dal Tedesco, edizione aumentata dall' Ab. Carlo Fea. Rome, dalla Stamperia Pagliarini, 1783-84
WINCKELMANN, (Johann Joachim)
Allegorical frontispiece in vol. I, portrait of Cav. d'Azara in vol. II and of the author in vol. III, numerous engravings in text including one folding plate and 2 full-page plates, at the end of the volumes are 52 numbered plates.
A fine set from this important illustrated Italian edition of Winckelmann's classic text. Carlo Fea (1753-1834) has provided a valuable preface and commentary to his translation thus making it preferable to the first Italian edition of 1779. Fea states in his preface that he hopes that Winckelmann, as a scholar, would have understood his actions.
Winckelmann's Geschichte der Kunst des Alterums, first published in Dresden in 1764, is a standard text in the understanding of Greek art history and became the supreme bible of Neo-classicism. Winckelmann (1717-68) moved away from his predecessors by constructing a stylistic chronology for Greek art. However, as Schnapp notes, his decisive influence came in his interpretation of the works of antiquity where Greek art represented the ideal of a perfect and absolute beauty, "Winckelmann transcended archaeology in the relevance of his analyses, but above all in the quality of his style and the ambition of his aesthetic".
Provenance: Armorial bookplate of Sir Joseph Verdin (1838-1920), Garnstone Castle, Herefordshire.
Cicognara 59. A. Schnapp, The Discovery of the Past, 1996, pp. 258-266.
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| Date:1783-84 |
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