Antiquarianism, the History of Objects, and the History of Art before Winckelmann

Author(s): Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 62, No. 3 (Jul., 2001), pp. 523-541
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3654154
Accessed: 19-04-2018 04:40 UTC

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 Antiquarianism, the History of
Objects, and the History of Art
before Winckelmann

Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

To the Memory of Franklin LeVan Baumer.

In light ofpostmodemist and poststructuralist trends in the humanities which

have contested notions of originality and of authorship, it might seem surprising
that one outstanding myth of the eighteenth century has not yet been thoroughly
challenged. This is the claim made by Johann Joachim Winckelmann in the fore-
word to the Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums, originally published in 1764, that
he had created a new history of art which was distinct from a history of artists and
also different from what had previously been written about antiquities (Altertiimer):

The history of the art of antiquity, which I have undertaken to write, is

no mere account of the chronological order and change of art, but I
take the word history in the wider sense, that it has in the Greek lan-
guage, and my intention is to offer an attempt at a system.... But the
essence of art is in every part the most eminent aim, in which the history
of artists has little influence, and this [sort of history of artists], which
has been compiled by others, is therefore not to be sought here ... those
who have treated antiquities, examine either only such where erudition
was to be applied, or, if they speak of art, this happens in part with
common eulogies, or their judgment is built on peculiar, false grounds.'

1 Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (Sdmtliche Werke 3,
ed. Joseph Eisebein) (Donaueschingen, 1825), 10-11: "Die Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums,
welche ich zu schreiben unternommen habe, ist keine bloBe Erzdihlung der Zeitfolge und der
Verinderung in derselben, sondem ich nehme das Wort Geschichte in der weitern Bedeutung,
dasselbe in der griechische Sprache hat, und meine Absicht ist, einen Versuch eines Lehrgebdiudes
zu liefern...Das Wesen der Kunst aber ist in diesem sowohl, als in jedem Theile, der vornehmste
Endzweck, in welches die Geschichte der Kiinstler wenig Einflul8 hat, und diese, welche von
anderen zusammengetragen worden, hat man also hier nicht zu suchen ... diejenigen, welche von

523

Copyright 2001 by Journal of the History of Ideas, Inc.

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524 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

Wolf Lepenies once described this claim

myths of the Enlightenment and presented
writing of art history and natural history in
in the historiography of art has revived, p
forth on Winckelmann.3 Yet the critique su
been followed. Winckelmann's claim to orig
turning point for most accounts of the histor

Alterttimern handeln, verhiren entweder nur dasjeni

wenn sie von der Kunst reden, geschiehet es theils m
Urtheil auf fremde falsche Griinde gebauet." All tran
2 See Wolf Lepenies, "Fast ein Poet: Johann Johan
der Kunstgeschichte," in Autoren und Wissenschaftl
120, and "Der andere Fanatiker. Historisierung und W
bei Johann Joachim Winckelmann," Ideal und Wirkl
Jahrhundert (Frankfurter Forschungen zur Kunst,
Maek-Gerard (Berlin, 1982), 21-29.
3 See Alex Potts, Flesh and the Ideal: Winckelman
Haven, 1994), "Political Attitudes and the Rise of Hist
191-213; "Winckelmann's Construction of History
mort de l'art antique: Historicit6 et beau ideal chez W
de l'histoire de l'art a l'epoque des Lumieres. Act
1 'Auditorium du Louvre du 11 dicembre 1989 au 12f
1991), 9-38; and "Winckelmann's Interpretation of th
Context" (Ph. D. diss., Warburg Institute, Universi
Einem, "Winckelmann und die Wissenschaft der
"Klassizitdit und republikanische Freiheit in der auf
18. Jahrhunderts," in Johann Joachim Winckelmann
burg, 1986), 315-26, and 195-211; Michael Fried, "
Imitation," October, 37 (1986), 87-97; Francis Haske
historiens," and Michel Espagne, "La diffusion d
Lumieres. Les amis de J.-G. Wille et l'echo de Winc
83-99 and 101-35; Maria Fancelli, "Winckelmann nel
tra letteratura e archeologia (Venice, 1993), 31-45;
Mourning the Death of Art History," in Whitney Da
Art History (New York, 1994), 141-59 (originally pub
tic Exchange, ed. Thomas Gaehtgens [Berlin, 1993]
Winckelmann: Das Florentiner Winckelmann-Manusk
(Florence, 1994); Heinrich Dilly, "1738: Vers une to
1 'histoire de l'art de l 'Antiquite au xviiie siecle, ed.
Edouard Pommier, "Winckelmann: des vies d'artistes
ed. Matthias Waschek (Paris, 1996), 207-36; Jeffrey
Aesthetic Education (Oxford, 1996); Barbara St
Kunsthistoriographie. Zu den Werk-beschreibungen b
Dominicus Fiorillo und die romantische Bewegungen
4 The thesis that Winckelmann created a completel
stated in the most recent edition of Udo Kulterman
einer Wissenschaft (Munich, 19903), 53ff, and Ger
(Paris, 1986), 94ff. Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, "Bef
the History of Art," Knowledge, Science and Literatu
Scholz Williams and Stephan K. Schindler et al. (C
Connoisseurship and Art History before Winckelman

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Antiquarianism 525

It may be that Winckelmann

cause his differentiation of h
particular coincides with and he
that between "philosophy," or
necessary but inferior. This dis
their counterparts in other cou
bates, and it is echoed in curr
paraged in favor of what is oft
century the Enlightenment cam
tique of Max Horkheimer and
opinion which, despite the ris
scholarship, has gained in fas
But the contrast between p
distinction that is ultimately
to dominate many views of th
case at hand suggests that sup
the historiography of art, as in
up with late humanism and en
wished to admit. Scholars of
terpretations of the role of t
teenth centuries-those who de
historiography of art have po
ian tradition and that of the hi
have primarily dealt with Ita
Winckelmann's position large

in Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of S

ever, offer information on Wincke
tion. The present essay utilizes som
5 See Amaldo Momigliano, "Ancien
and Courtauld Institutes, 13 (1950),
cal-Method Literature: Sixteenth to
6 For earlier examples see Hans
Kunstwissenschaftliche Forschun
geschichte," in Hans Sedlmayr, Ku
schichte (Mittenwald, 1978), 49-80;
tics and Art Historical Method in th
7 Max Horkheimer and Theodor W
8 See the work of Frangoise Waque
others.

9 See Francis Haskell, History and

Haven, 1993); Gabriele Bickendorf,
17. und 18. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1
des 17. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 199
Kinnes and Gillian Varndell (New Y
10 Bickendorf, Historisierung, 275
(Geschichten) with a unified history a
Discovery of the Past, 262, says th

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 526 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

broader European historical and geographi

unclear so long as the beginnings of the his
speaking world, in which he was born and edu
This essay reconsiders some aspects of a la
and, a sign of the continuation of humanist an
northern European and especially German auth
The traditions they represent not only evo
publications which specifically employed th
der Kunst, Kunstgeschichte), in a sense not
his book appeared; Winckelmann even gru
some such writings but denied that any pre
etrating about art." These traditions, who
elsewhere, nevertheless belong to a larger g
work.12 Indeed, they may well establish an ev
for Wincklemann's ideas than do the more
sources which have been previously adduce
A reassessment of Winckelmann's Germa
reconsideration of the first major book in
the history of art, Joachim von Sandra
Todesca) of 1675-79. Both for its biographi
antiquarian character Sandrart's work has
tory writing of the eighteenth century. Sand
Italian, German, and Netherlandish artists,
largely remembered. But his three-volume
an extensive compendium of art theory an
artist, scholar, and connoisseur, which incl
ses and to artistic symbolism and descriptio
ture and ancient and contemporary Roman
Since Wilhelm Waetzoldt's Deutsche Kun
rightly been regarded as a forerunner of W
path to Winckelmann in more ways than
literature of art in German which provided

made history subservient to object" and "set out to e

draws Winckelmann into his account, History and
society."
" Winckelmann, Geschichte der Kunst, ed. cit., 10: "Es sind einige Schrifen unter dem
Namen einer Geschichte der Kunst an das Licht getreten: aber die Kunst hat einen geringen
Antheil an derselben, denn ihre Verfasser haben sich mit derselben nicht genug verkehrt, und
k6nnten also nicht geben, als was sie aus Biichern, oder von Sagenharen halten. An das Wesen
und zu dem Innern der Kunst fiihret fast kein Scribent...."
12 Kaufmann, "Before Winckelmann."
13 E.g., Potts, "Winckelmann's Interpretation"; and Haskell, History and its Images.
14 Joachim von Sandrart, L 'Academia Todesca della Architectura, Scultura & Pittura: Oder
TeutscheAcademie der Edlen Bau- Bild- und Mahlerey-Kiinste (3 vols.; Nuremberg, 1675-1679).
15 Wilhelm Waetzoldt, Deutsche Kunsthistoriker (Berlin, 19863), 23-42.

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 Antiquarianism 527

together much of the sort of ma

could be constituted. In gathe
textual information than his hu
effort may be related to a patt
scholarship, by which an earlier
for later constructions.

Nevertheless, Sandrart's ac
Winckelmann's and that of his
in a way that echoes what Winc
and some nineteenth-century G
subsequent interpretations w
emphasized the shortcomin
Sandrart's erudition (Gelehrsamk
Waetzoldt Sandrart's erudition
condition which would only c
dard works such as Udo Kulterm
described Sandrart as the Vasar
the German painter-historian is
of Vasari and of his Netherlan
tant essay Roberto Salvini treat
historiographers begun by hi
noted that Sandrart's writing w
Christian Klemm, author of
has elaborated these themes i
volumes of a facsimile edition of the Teutsche Academie. Klemm recounts
Sandrart's sources and his role in the continuation and translation of the tradi-
tion of artists' biographies, and he also relates him to the intellectual currents of
his time. Klemm thereby recognizes some of the newer historiographical con-
tent found in Sandrart's book, including the presence of antiquarian materials
not found in earlier works that may be related to the historiography of art.
Klemm also traces the impact on the text of Sigismund von Birken, the
Nuremberg poet and member of the order of the Pegnitzschiifer, and relates the
composition of Sandrart's compendium to the tradition of the polyhistors.20
Yet like Waetzoldt's comparison of Sandrart's to other contemporary schol-
arly accomplishments of the seventeenth century, this is not to be regarded as a

16 Waetzoldt, Deutsche Kunsthistoriker, 42.

17 Kultermann, Geschichte der Kunstgeschichte, 30-31.
8 Roberto Salvini, "L'eredit" del Vasari storiografo in Germania: Joachim von Sandrart," in
11 Vasari storiografo e artista (Atti del congresso internazionale nel IV centenario della morte
1974) (Florence, 1976), 759-71.
19 Christian Klemm, Joachim von Sandrart. Kunst Werke und Lebens Lauf (Berlin, 1986).
20 Klemm, "Pfade durch Sandrarts Teutsche Academie," in Joachim von Sandrart Teutsche
Academie der Bau- Bild- und Mahlerey-Kiinste Niirnberg 1675-1680 in urspriinglicher Form
neu gedruckt mit einer Einleitung von Christian Klemm (N6rdlingen, 1994), 9-32, with bibliography.

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528 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

favorable evaluation.21 Klemm is sympathetic

arship nor to his style of literary expressi
work is "encyclopedic" in an older sense
Encyclop&die of the eighteenth century. Kl
a negative comparison of Sandrart's historio
of the polyhistors, "so we must class Sandrart
the 'polyhistors' of his century, who half-d
pletely untouched by those currents which
that time were being prepared in Paris."22
Klemm's description of the "polyhistoric
of antiquarian knowledge without criticism
aufschwemmend Ausbreiten von antiquari
Sandrart's second volume deserves further
been recognized as distinctive in Sandrart c
negative product of his time. The relation o
ditions may be further amplified by other, ea
Latin on the theory of art and the history of
resembles a scholar like Franciscus Junius
miliar with the work and persons of a varie
torians, and poets; and he, too, describes an
Like some of the antiquarian compendia on
supplied visual material as illustration. He
found in other contemporaneous scholarly t
Sandrart's volumes thereby also provide a
ture scholarship and even anticipate certain
opments. While it is correct that Sandrart's b
as well as the antiquarians in its treatment of
accumulation of materials, his version of
characterized differently and more favorab
manner of presentation may have been ecle
also like that of many other antiquarians
Biggemann has explained. The eclecticism
The method of the Teutsche Academie is n
sidered to be restricted in the sense that t

21 Waetzoldt, 24, also compares Sandrart to Samue

22 Klemm, "Pfade," 12, 19: "so miissen wir denn S
den halb dilettantisch Material hiufenden 'Polyhist
unberiihrt von den zukunftweisenden Str6mungen,
23 Klemm, "Pfade," 20; also 28, n. 148, describe
Literaturgattung" but also establishes the direct cont
24 Allan Ellenius, De Arte Pingendi: Latin Art Lite
and its International Background (Uppsala, 1960); a
25 See Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Topica Univ
tischer und barocker Wissenschaft (Hamburg, 1983).

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Antiquarianism 529

together pertains not to all as

and monuments of art. More
practicing artist and since he
book, he can hardly in any in
Furthermore the Teutsche A
Sandrart provides an index fo
to be systematic in the sense of
it has its own system. The first
practice of the three arts of
ture, and architecture), the s
historical origins of the arts, a
For this and further reason
called an uncritical piling up
theses about history, inherite
of objects.27 This procedure is o
tices developed by antiquaria
gested that the introduction o
stone for authentication and
positive product of early mod
the impact of Pyrrhonism
historica).28 Sandrart in fact
plies methods to the evaluati
contemporaneous Kritik.29 H
drawings and paintings that
ship.30 The employment of t

26 Waetzold, Deutsche Kunsthistor

27 Martino Capucci, "Dalla biogra
artistica nel Seicento," Studi Secente
and "l'accertamento della verita" as
much as Sandrart also checks theses
ever degree of consistency, as Klem
ment of Capucci's observations in re
28 See Arnaldo Momigliano, "Ancie
cently Markus Vl1kel, "Pyrrhonism
deutschen historischen Methodolog
York, 1987), 103-5; see also Astrid
ture: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centu
29 See Herbert Jaumann, Critica. Un
Quintilian und Thomasius (Leiden,
et art: un ajout en guise de comment
Kommentars," in Olivier Christin an
religidser Kunst (Paris, 1999), 281-
30 See Jeffrey M. Muller, "Measu
Literature on Connoisseurship," in
productions (Studies in the History
tion of Drawings," Latin American
Art, Acts of the XXth International

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 530 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

been seen as essential for the development

they were claimed by Winckelmann as his
Sandrart also describes at some length bo
rary art objects that were to be found in K
tions: this section of his book is innovative
collections in a work that otherwise contains theoretical and historical materi-
als.31 Sandrart's store of antiquarian materials, stocked further by his discus-
sion of where they can be seen in collections, not only directs readers to them
but also supplies him, and them, with comparanda for a critical assessment of
history.32 For example, Sandrart refers his judgment of the decline of art in late
antiquity to the observation of medals, as Klemm has also noted.33 This point
should be emphasized, because Sandrart does not merely take over the familiar
account of artistic decline setting in with the end of the Roman Empire which had
been repeated since the Renaissance. Sandrart's comments on the use of med-
als resemble the opinions of contemporaneous antiquarians, and are worth quoting:

All the famed [writers] who have experience with history have made
known to the world how highly necessary is the study and knowledge
of medals, because they alone give the stamp of truth in the history of
the ancients, and more credence is often to be placed in a medal, than
in diverse authors or books. For even though they are no doubt mute,
still their forms and reverses speak with more certainty. They settle
accounts in dubious matters, they light upon history with pure truth,
and they never are silent. Indeed, with their temper they outlast every-
thing imaginable, and show at the same time pure truth together with
the excellence and immortality of the art of imagery in a small piece of
metal. Therefore the most excellent scholars have all had recourse to
lessons in metal....34

Sandrart's application of method here involves a fresh empirical examination

of medals for the purpose of analysis of the variety of their appearance, which

31 Teutsche Academie, II, pt. 2, 71ff.

32 See Sandrart's procedure and his use of materials described as being in various collec-
tions for forming judgments, as in Teutsche Academie, II, pt. 2, 78, 81, 83.
33 See Klemm, "Pfade," 20-22.
34 Teutsche Academie, II, pt. 2, 81: "Es ist bey allen beriihmten Historien-Erfahrnen
weltkiindig/ wie hochn6tig sey die Wissenschaft und Erkintnis der Medaglienl weil sie allein in
den Historien der Alten/ den Ausschlag der Warheit geben/ und ist oft einer einigen Medaglie
mehr Glauben zuzusetzen / als unterschiedlichen Authoren oder Biichern. Dan ob sie schon
stumm sind / so reden doch ihre Ausbildungen und Riversen mit mehrer Sicherheit. Sie entrichten
die zweifelhaftige Sachen/ finden die Geschichte mit der reinen Warheit / und schweigen
nimmermehr. Ja sie dauren mit der Hairte fiber alles was zu ersinnen/ und zeigen zugleich die
reine Warheit/ mit derVortrefflich- und Unsterblichkeit der Bildkunst/ in einem kleinen Stuck
Metall beysammen. Dahrer dann die vortrefflichste Gelehrten alle ihre Zuflucht zu den metallinen
Lehrern genommen haben...."

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Antiquarianism 531
he here, as elsewhere in his bo
count. His interpretation of objec
something that is supposed to
eighteenth-century authors.
Sandrart expanded.the view inhe
ography of art. It has long bee
graphical coverage of artists pa
Germans, as well as to bring th
geographically, to mention the
pean involvement not only with
plified by Athanasius Kircher,
Sandrart moreover includes ac
Sandrart seems to realize more
promise that theorists of univ
struct a history of all the arts
visual arts, as they have subseq
Sandrart's extension of previo
also important, because in this
predecessors. Like Vasari and ot
of the history of painting, sculpt
mulations of artists' lives, espec
when biographical material bec
ognized, Sandrart's account wa
cline of art to the second Nica
basing this judgment in humanist
But Sandrart did more than that;
in Europe. He filled in the hist
thirteenth century, when, as i
artists usually begin with the b
Parisian schools like that of St. M

35 Teutsche Academie, I, pt. 3, 100ff

Western Art (London, 1973), 93ff.
36 See Erik Iversen, The Myth ofEgyp
19932), 88ff: Kircher's compendium
contributed to the study of East Asia
1667), cited by Sandrart in Teutsche A
37 See, e.g., Bartholomaeus Keck
Commentarius, in Opera Omnia (2
"Eurocentrism and Art History? Univ
Winckelmann," in Memory and Oblivi
the History ofArt held in Amsterdam 1
(Dordrecht, 1999), 35-42.
38 Klemm, "Pfade," 12 with referenc
39 Teutsche Academie, I, pt. 2, pp. 5-

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532 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

begun writing on such subjects, Sandrart

entirely negative, account of the Middle Ag
Hence far from failing to point to the f
work also directly established foundations f
importance of his contribution is indisputa
ment of criticism, theory, and prosopography
played a key role in establishing the first
Sandrart's impact was also felt on other late
century developments in the historiography o
Sandrart seems not just to have preceded
direction and some material for the first book
tecture, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erl
Architektur.42 Fischer von Erlach sketches a h
ing to architects but by a sequence of illust
nologically and according to regions. In so
ognizable pattern of a broad universal hist
treatment of architecture through illustrat
having a predecessor and possibly even a di
treatment of China is picked up by Fischer, if
into a more positive direction; and Sandrart
can in a way be compared to the surprising
One detail in Fischer's book speaks not jus
use of Sandrart. This is Fischer's treatment of
volume in the last book of his compendium
after a sequence of illustrations of building
ance of Fischer's own works, the appearanc
architecture might otherwise seem extr
Sandrart's work there are also illustration
these indeed occupy a place in his opus that
(Figure 2). In the Teutsche Academie the p
matter) completes the second, and thus the hi

40 See Bickendorf, Die Historisierung; antiquaria

medieval art are the topics of continuing research by
41 Klemm, "Pfade," although I am in disagreement
historiography; and see Bruno Bushart, "Die Augsbur
tween Renaissance and Romanticism (Leids Kunsth
332 ff; Ludwig Grote, "Joachim von Sandrart und Ni
des Germanischen National-Museums) (Nuremberg,
42 Entwurff einer historischen Architektur.. (Vien
43 See Kaufmann, "Eurocentrism and Art History?
phy of the Arts before Winckelmann."
44 Entwurffeiner historischen Architektur, Bk. 5:
Romains, & modernes: avec Quelques uns de l'inven
45 Teutsche Academie, II, pt. 3: "Von unterschiedlic
Gebdiuden/Ruinen/H6mrnern u.a.d."

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 Antiquarianism 533

It is also possible to associate

opments in his immediate m
written on the visual arts.46
figures in the town. In turn Al
with artistic interests in the ci
century Christoph Gottlieb S
manuscripts, lectured on the
dissertation on ivory diptych
jects they discussed by descri
their inscriptions, handwritin
form, bindings, symbolism,
subjects, like Martin Schmeit
and how objects had been mad
Hence long before the establ
tory at Gdttingen and Berlin,
and dissertations on objects w
many. In the later seventeent
sented on topics including cr
in various faculties, not only
involved, but also at such un
Jena. After Sandrart (and his G
kammers could become the su
Later scholarship has usually
sorts of endeavors as antiqua

46 Frank Wolf Eiermann, "Die Ver

Jacob von Sandrart bis Johann Just
Universitdit Erlangen-Niimberg, 19
47 See Christian Klemm, "Sigmund
der Teutschen Academie und zu an
Rom, Niirnbergs Bliitezeit in der
(Wiesbaden, 1995), 289-313; and see
und die Universitdit Altdorf im 17/
48 Schwarz's writings on manuscr
librariae veterum supellectile disse
(Leipzig,1756); see also Gustav Phil
Ecclesiastico" (Ph. D. diss., Altdorf
49 Commentatio Historica de Coro
et Fatis Sacrae, Angelicae et Apost
temporary dissertation on the crow
Miller: Conrad Deichler, "Disputat
1709).
50 D. B. Major, Unvorgreiffliches Bedencken von Kunst- und Naturalien-Kammern (Kiel,
1674).
51 At Altdorf in 1704 Friedrich Sigismund Wurffbain defended a dissertation on Kunst-
kammers and the history of collecting that had probably been written by the praeses, Professor
D. G. M611er: "Dissertatio de Technophysiotameis-von Kunst-und Naturalien-Kammem"
(Altdorf, 1704). Other dissertations are discussed in "Before Winckelmann," 76-78.

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 Figure 1: Ancient Vases, from Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach,
Entwurff einer historischen Architektur, Frankfurt, 1725 (2nd edition),
courtesy Marquand Library, Princeton University.

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Antiquarianism 535

Figure 2: Ancient Vases, from Joa

Nuremberg, 1675, courtesy, M

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536 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

materials in Sandrart. The term antiquarian

or interest that is concerned with documents an
to reconstitute their appearance and nature, n
ner of procedure. Antiquarianism is thus thou
cal research, not to represent real historiograph
with Winckelmann, and antiquarianism with
Sandrart's work and the link it provides be
anism suggest that these distinctions are too
dismiss too hastily his sort of scholarship and
belonging to a type that is different in its met
a concern with the visual particularities of o
framework. Although Winckelmann wanted to
decessors and his mode of presentation and liter
and from those of other antiquarians, it is n
ians supplied Winckelmann both with most
also with much of his method, which is now ide
Sandrart's work further suggests that Winck
ents can be traced not only in regard to arch
for which he drew upon material compiled b
often regarded as Winckelmann's special cont
namely, the analysis of the formal or stylistic
to place them in historical context.
Numerous texts reveal the existence of a host
to Winckelmann in addition to Sandrart in th
one seventeenth-century publication on ivor
cussed elsewhere, the Liege Jesuit Alexande
to their stylistic qualities. In a manner that
Morelli's discussion of the connoisseur's meth
presents illustrations demonstrating the datin
such as the shape of hands.53 Furthermore,
cording to assumptions of stylistic history,
ated with Winckelmann's supposed invention
sented in a diptych as Gothic. He states that he
destroyed Rome. Instead this term is to be un
say art-historically specific: he compares the
calls the Gothic Cathedral of Reims. He then
ciation with the church of St. Lambert in Lie
52 See Momigliano, "Ancient History and the Antiqu
53 See Carlo Ginzburg, "Clues: Roots of an Evidential
tr. John and Anne C. Tedeschi (London, 1990), 96-125
54 Alexandri Wilthelmi, Diptychon Leodiense ex C
Commentarius (Liege, 1659), and Appendix adDiptychon
"Antiquarian Connoisseurship and Art History before
76-77; and Bickendorf, Die Historisierung, 261, n. 52

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 Antiquarianism 537

Through writings such as Sa

to what later generations ha
entered into German universi
This sort of instruction has a
personally encountered it at
years 1738-39. It has been kn
Baumgarten, the founder of
definition of the meaning of ar
Heinrich Schulze on numisma
that Schulze was probably th
study of ancient objects, the
underestimated.56

A posthumous publication b
tinguish copies or fakes from
ment for a seminar he offered
ing how one could learn by e
history according to the way
what they depict, or their in
studied with him at the time
to date objects on the basis of
This approach to a history of
to the method that Winckelman
relates his instruction in num
pursuits; he uses it to constru
later to develop: he says that
decline of arts in restless and
ered in peaceful times thereafte
are also anticipated by Sandra
Schulze's.

By the 1740s, when Winckelmann left Halle to begin his own career as a
scholar, the term "history of art" (or art history, Geschichte der Kunst or
Kunstgeschichte) had also become current in the German language, not just in
French and English texts mentioned by Winckelmann. Winckelmann admitted

55 Cf. Bickendorf, loc. cit., who notes that the reprinting of Wilthelm's work in Thesaurus
Diptychorum (Rome, 1759) made this "weitgehend vergessene Text" accessible again to the
republic of letters. The existence of treatments of ivories in German dissertations, however,
suggests that the text was known in the earlier eighteenth century in Germany.
56 Justi, Winckelmann und seine Zeitgenossen (Leipzig, 18982), 52-54, and Kaufmann, "An-
tiquarian Connoisseurship and Art History"; and for Baumgarten and Winckelmann see Dilly,
"1738: Vers une topographie de la notion d'art."
57 Johann Heinrich Schulze, Anleitung zur dltern Munzwisssenschaft worin die dazu geh6rigen
Schriften beurtheilet und die Alterthiimer au Miinzen erleutert werden (Halle, 1766).
58 Schulze, Einladungs-Schrift zu einem Collegio Privato iiber die Muntz- Wissenschaft und
die daraus erlaiiternde Griechische und R6mische Alterthiimer (Halle, 1738).

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 538 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

that the term existed in foreign-language tit

merely histories of artists, but in fact much be
was already being used in German publication
ies of objects. The term had been employ
Geschichte der Natur und der Kunst that h
Wroclaw) between 1717 and 1720, in which
painting and porcelain production and an accoun
und Naturalien-Cabinett in Dresden.59 A per
Versuche nutzlichen Sammlungen zu der Natu
accounts of artistic inventions, archival studi
as the architect Giovanni Maria Nosseni, and
such as that now attributed to Master HW (H
near Leipzig.60 Another book of the late 174
arts" also treats the history of the visual arts a
and sciences.61
At approximately the same time in Leipzig
Germany, commercial center of Saxony, and
comparatively well known author with whose
was also writing explicitly about a history of
jects. This is Johann Friedrich Christ. It has
Winckelmann, Johann Friedrich Christ envi
painting based on the study of objects, includin
Christ's history was also to be organized
Winckelmann's was later.62 Christ constructed the life of Lucas Cranach he
published in 1726 not only on the basis of earlier biographies, but through the
study of archival information and of paintings that he had actually seen and
describes. Christ says that his biography of Cranach was conceived not as part
of a series of artists' lives, but as an introduction to what was to be a history of
painting. Although this work was never completed, Christ's statement indi-
cates that like Winckelmann he specifically distinguished between a history of

59 Geschichte der Natur und Kunst. Sammlung von Natur- und Medicin. Wie auch hierzu
geh6rigen Kunst und Literatur-Geschichten, e.g., on the manufacture of paint (1718), 730.
60 Neue Versuche nutzlicher Sammlungen zu der Natur- und Kunst-geschichte sonderlich
von Obersachsen, Schneeberg, 1747ff. See, for example, "Sammlung von Neuen Natur und Kunst-
Erfindungen, und andern Kunst-Stiicken," Neue Versuche, 6 (1749), 493ff; "Kurtze Nachricht,
von dem Leben, des beriihmten Johannes Mariae Nosseni, Churfiirstlichen. Sichs Baumeister,"
Neue Versuche, 1 (1747), 25-31; "M. G. F. Miillers' Bericht, wegen derer am Altar zu
Ehrenfriedersdorff befindlichen merckwiirdigen Alterthiimer. Nebst einer Figur," Neue Versuche,
5 (1748), 371-77.
61 Kern-Historie aller Freien Kunsten und Sch6nen Wissenschaften, Vom Anfang der Welt,
bis auf unsere Zeiten (Leipzig, 1748).
62 See Kurt Karl Eberlein, Die deutsche Litterdrgeschichte der Kunst im 18. Jahrhundert.
Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Kunstwissenschaft (Karlsruhe, 1919), 14, Waetzoldt, Deutsche
Kunsthistoriker, 45ff, and Julius von Schlosser, La Letteratura artistica (Florence, 1967'), 481,
491, also discuss Christ as a forerunner of Winckelmann, and Waetzoldt also discusses his method.

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Antiquarianism 539
art and a history of artists. Th
indicates, according to a framew
nologically according to a history
later tried to provide for ancient
In Christ's teaching and later
in his project. While holding a c
lectured on aspects of sculpture a
ments in various ways to support
construction of a history of ar
tion on artists' monograms, on
earliest standard reference wor
compiled from his observation
graphic collection that Christ
research. The compilation of s
served the interests of a conno
individual works. More than that
grams was meant to provide one
be a history of art based on ep
Beginning in the 1740s the ar
ticipated Winckelmann's ideas i
terial study of Winckelmann
Krubsacius into discussions of W
can be further reassessed. Kru
noted by Winckel-mann, becau
mid-1750s, he was a leading fi
Saxon capital. The most famou
Landhaus, formerly a governme
of the city of Dresden. In 1755
famous Gedanken iiber die Nac
gained further attention in the c
HoJbaumeister, court architect
sequence for an aspiring young
Four years later, in 1759, Kr
Ursprung, Wachstum und Verf

63 See, e.g., Noctium Academicarum

men II "quo ex antiquitate quaedam m
1739); and the posthumously collect
vornemlich des Altertums (Leipzig, 17
64 Johann Friedrich Christ, Anzeige
page //2; also Phil. Dan. Lippert, Dact
... (Leipzig, 1755), intro., x-xi.
65 Christ, Anzeige undAuslegung, pa
66 JUSti, Winckelmann und seine Ze

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 540 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

where ideas critical of certain forms of eighteen

found which resemble the anti-rococo classic
own Gedanken iiber die Nachahmung der gri
Krubsacius repeats notions that he had apparentl
thus independent of and antecedent to W
Krubsacius's book on ornament, even more d
historiography, antedates the appearance of
Kunst des Altertums by five years.
Krubsacius's is the first history of the "de
primarily with architectural ornament. While
tects, his account is primarily of forms of deco
opment of ornament from its origins to the p
rial found throughout the world, and often give
ments to point up the critique explicit in his his
of the Goldsmiths in Rome (the Arcus Argen
decadence in design is one characteristic exam
Krubsacius thus presents a history of object
thetic biases resemble those of Winckelmann.
More significant, his account also anticipates Winckelmann's history.
Krubsacius presents not only a critique of designs found in the past as well as in
present-day Europe but also a chronological account of his subject established
around the description of a category of objects that is accommodated to a his-
torical schema. This is the familiar scheme of origin, rise, and fall. Like
Winckelmann, Krubsacius imposes this pattern onto a universal historical
scheme, one that moreover specifically adopts materials from various lands
and countries, as did Winckelmann.
Krubsacius also expressly cites as a source Fischer von Erlach's Entwurff
einer historischen Architektur of 1721.68 Krubsacius's allusion to Fischer von
Erlach is important (though hardly unique) as evidence for Fischer's reception
in the eighteenth century. This is an important indication that there seems to
have been an ongoing discussion of historiography of the arts in the eighteenth
century, in Germany as elsewhere, that antedates Winckelmann. Fischer's vi-
sual history of architecture can thus be considered, indeed was considered, to
have presented a history of objects that antedates Winckelmann's. And Fischer
von Erlach also leads back to Sandrart.

This essay has discussed but a few figures active in the German-speaking
world, familiar as well as little known, who antedate Winckelmann in their
contributions to the historiography of art. Many other writers who anticipate
aspects of the approach to the study of objects in a historical manner that is

67 Gedanken von dem Ursprung, Wachstum und Verfall der Verzierungen in den sch6nen
Kiinsten (Leipzig, 1759), 21.
68 Ibid., 15-16.

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 Antiquarianism 541
associated with Winckelmann
already have been presented to
Winckelmann is actually envisi
here also suggests that a revisi
ture between the supposedly m
cifically its presumed revolutio
arship, including antiquarianism
What then was distinctive ab
many other apparent innovato
already existing concepts and m
ments and objects. He offered
by historical narrative in a uni
the time). He set his discussion
art, according to the redefinition
the eighteenth century by suc
with whose work he was famil
cially in the vernacular, in com
also often been acknowledged,
thing else that made his appro
tures, rather than the original
especially in regard to method
elements which make Winckelmann distinctive.

In any event, Winckelmann came on the scene at a moment that had been
well prepared for him in Germany as elsewhere. This circumstance also helps
account for the generally favorable reception his writings received in his own
time, and that as a consequence established his fame in later ages. It is therefore
not a postmodern urge to deny Winckelmann authorial originality but a desire
to offer a fuller and more balanced story that calls attention to the need for
further reconsideration of the significance of the so-called antiquarian tradi-
tion. Such reconsideration not only helps fill in a chapter in the history of schol-
arship but creates a firmer foundation on which his own contribution to the
origins of discussions of the history of art, and more generally to the supposed
eighteenth-century revolution in historiography, can be assessed.

Princeton University.

69 "Before Winckelmann: Towards the Origins of the History of Art."

70 See Henning Wrede, "Die Entstehung der Archidologie und das Einsetzen der neuzeitlichen
Geschichtsbetrachtung," in Geschichtdiskurs, 2, Anfdnge modernen historischen Denkens, ed.
Wolfgang Kiittler, Jrnm Rilsen, and Ernst Schulin (Frankfurt a. M., 1994), 95-119.

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