WINCKELMANN, Johann Joachim - Lot 78

WINCKELMANN, Johann Joachim Histoire de l'art chez les Anciens Paris, Saillant, 1766 MANIFESTO OF NEOCLASSICAL ART, A MAJOR TEXT IN ART HISTORY. 2 volumes in-8 (197 x 123 mm). Translation by Gottfried Sellius, revised by Jean-Baptiste-René Robinet. COLLATION: t. I : π2 2*-3*8 4*4 5*8 A-Y8 Z4 : (2) ff., LVI-360 pp. ; t. II : π2 *8 2*6 A-X8 Y4 : (2) ff. XXVIII-343 pp. CONTENTS: De l'Origine de l'Art & des causes de ses différences chez les nations différentes. - The different materials used in sculpture. - Art among the Egyptians. - Art among the Etruscans & their neighbors. - The reasons and causes of the perfection of Greek Art, and its superiority over that of other nations. Etc. ILLUSTRATION: 22 fine copper-engraved vignettes, including one signed by Frankendaad: 2 on the title pages, 11 headpieces, 8 culs-de-lampe, 1 hors-texte. CONTEMPORARY BINDINGS. Red morocco, gilt decoration, triple fillet framing, ornate ribbed spines, gilt edges. A major work, considered to be the encyclopedia of the arts in antiquity, translated from the German by Gottfried Sellius and retouched by Jean-Baptiste-René Robinet. "The history of the Art of the Ancients, which I have undertaken to write, is not a simple chronological account of the revolutions and changes it has undergone in the course of time. I take the word History in the most extensive meaning it has in the Greek language, & my design is to give an essay of a System of the Art [...] My principal object in all this Work is the nature of the Art: the history of the Artists is there for little." BIBLIOGRAPHY : Brunet V, col. 1463 -- Cohen, 1068