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
Recalling the Observation of Works of 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
If you wish to pass judgment on works of art, then first look beyond that which draws praise by its diligence and hard work, and pay attention to what has been produced by understanding. For diligence can be in evidence without talent, and this is also noticeable where diligence is lacking. An image created very laboriously by a painter or sculptor can as such be compared with a book produced laboriously. For just as writing in a learned way is not the greatest art, so an image that has been thoroughly painted in a fine and smooth way is no proof of a great artist. And the unnecessarily accumulated passages from books that were mostly never read are to a written work what the indication of every small detail is to an image. This observation will ensure that you are not astonished at the laurel leaves on the Apollo and the Daphne by Bernini, nor at the net on a statue in Germany by Adam the Elder. Thus no distinguishing features that have been produced by diligence alone enable one to recognize or differentiate the ancient from the modern.
Pay attention to whether the master whose work you are observing has thought it out himself or only imitated others, whether he recognized the primary aim of art, which is beauty, or created according to forms with which he was familiar, and whether he worked like a man or played like a child.
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- Information
- Johann Joachim Winckelmann on Art, Architecture, and Archaeology , pp. 129 - 136Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013