WINCKELMANN (Jean-Joachim) - Lot 644

WINCKELMANN (Jean-Joachim) Histoire de l'Art chez les anciens. Amsterdam, Van Harrevelt, 1766. 2 volumes in-8 : LVI, 360pp. / 2f., XXVIII, 343pp. ; vignettes in the text. Contemporary marbled fawn calf, ornate smooth spines, one headband stretched, rubbing and wear, cold fillet framing the boards, red edges. A fundamental work that revolutionized the historiography of Antiquity, laying the foundations for a modern, scientific history of art. A manifesto of neoclassicism, in which the famous German antiquarian defends the ideal of Greek beauty. Provenance: A copy from the library of Alexis Jean Armand Mieulet de Lombrail (1828-1904), a native of Tarn-et-Garonne and a young aristocrat whose family came from the Garonne nobility. He attended a Catholic preparatory school in Versailles and embraced positivist ideas. He was a pupil of Auguste Comte.