In 1752, he mentioned the "lust" which could be experienced with the "divine monarch" (i.e. Frederick the Great) in Potsdam in a similar way as in "Athens and Sparta", and which he could enjoy so immensely that he would never again be allowed to.

[12] In 1748, Winckelmann wrote to Count Heinrich von Bünau: "[L]ittle value is set on Greek literature, to which I have devoted myself so far as I could penetrate, when good books are so scarce and expensive".

Winckelmann had read Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Xenophon, and Plato, but he found at Nöthnitz the works of such famous Enlightenment writers as Voltaire and Montesquieu.

The Gedanken contains the first statement of the doctrines he afterwards developed,[11] the ideal of "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" (edle Einfalt und stille Größe) and the definitive assertion, "[t]he one way for us to become great, perhaps inimitable, is by imitating the ancients".

In England, Winckelmann's views stirred discussion in the 1760s and 1770s, although it was limited to artistic circles: Henry Fuseli's English translation, entitled Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks, was published in 1765, and reprinted with corrections in 1767.

On the strength of the Gedanken über die Nachahmung der Griechischen Werke, Augustus III, king of Poland and elector of Saxony, granted him a pension of 200 thalers, so that he could continue his studies in Rome.

[11] With the aid of his new friend,[17] the painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–79), with whom he first lived in Rome, Winckelmann devoted himself to the study of Roman antiquities and gradually acquired an unrivalled knowledge of ancient art.

[11] Winckelmann's method of careful observation allowed him to identify Roman copies of Greek art, something that was unusual at that time—Roman culture was considered the ultimate achievement of Antiquity.

[19] "Despite his association with Albani, Winckelmann steered clear of the shady world of art dealing which had compromised the scholarly respectability of such brilliant, if much less systematic antiquarians as Francesco Ficoroni and the Baron Stosch.

Winckelmann visited Naples again, in 1765 and 1767, and wrote for the use of the electoral prince and princess of Saxony his Briefe an Bianconi, which were published, eleven years after his death, in the Antologia romana.

Of much greater importance was the work entitled Monumenti antichi inediti ("Unpublished monuments of antiquity", 1767–1768), prefaced by a Trattato preliminare, which presented a general sketch of the history of art.

Winckelmann's explanations were of tremendous use to the future science of archaeology, by showing through observational method that the ultimate sources of inspiration of many works of art supposed to be connected with Roman history were to be found in Homer.

[11] Winckelmann's masterpiece, the Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("The History of Art in Antiquity"), published in 1764, was soon recognized as a permanent contribution to European literature.

Here, it included the revelatory tale told by a civilization's art and artifacts—these, if we look closely, tell us their own story of cultural factors, such as climate, freedom, and craft.

He presents a glowing picture of the political, social, and intellectual conditions which he believed tended to foster creative activity in ancient Greece.

The true artist, selecting from nature the phenomena suited to his purpose and combining them through the exercise of his imagination, creates an ideal type in which normal proportions are maintained, and particular parts, such as muscles and veins, are not permitted to break the harmony of the general outlines.

However, his friend, the sculptor and restorer Bartolomeo Cavaceppi managed to persuade him to travel to Munich and Vienna, where he was received with honor by Maria Theresa.

Winckelmann's writings are key to understanding the modern European discovery of ancient (sometimes idealized) Greece,[22] neoclassicism, and the doctrine of art as imitation (Nachahmung).

In the historical portions of his writings, Winckelmann used not only the works of art he himself had studied but the scattered notices on the subject to be found in ancient writers; and his wide knowledge and active imagination enabled him to offer many fruitful suggestions as to periods about which he had little direct information.

It marked an epoch by indicating the spirit in which the study of Greek art and of ancient civilization should be approached, and the methods by which investigators might hope to attain solid results.

The most accessible editions of selected works, in condensed forms, are David Irwin, Winckelmann: Selected Writings on Art (London: Phaidon) 1972, and David Carter, Johann Joachim Winckelmann on Art, Architecture, and Archaeology (Camden House) 2013, and the critical edition is Walther Rehm and Hellmut Sichtermann [de], eds., Kleine Schriften, Vorreden, Entwürfe (Berlin), 1968.