Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68) has long been recognized as a founder of modern methodologies in the fields of art history and archaeology. He also contributed considerably to studies of classical Greek architecture, and applied empirically derived categories of style to the analysis of classical works of art and architecture. He was also one of the first to undertake detailed empirical examinations of artifacts and describe them precisely in a way that enabled reasoned conclusions to be drawn and theories to be advanced about ancient societies and their cultures.

The present volume provides a selection of Winckelmann's essays ordered thematically, allowing the reader to discover his approaches to the study of classical Greek art, sculpture, and architecture as well as to his methodology in analyzing artifacts found at the site of the town of Herculaneum, buried, along with Pompeii and Stabiae, by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The essays have been newly translated for this edition and are preceded in this introduction by a brief account of his life and works, including consideration of the circumstances of his murder, together with a consideration of some of the major influences of his writings. This account is followed by an assessment of his influence on his contemporaries and subsequent writers and artists. At the end of this introduction more detailed information is provided on the organization of the present volume and the principles that were followed in the translation and editing process.