REFLECTIONS
ON THE
PAINTING
AND
SCULPTURE
OF THE
GREEKS.
REFLECTIONS
ON THE
Painting and Sculpture
OF
THE GREEKS:
WITH
Instructions for the Connoisseur,
AND
An Essay on Grace in Works of Art.
Translated from
The German Original of the Abbé Winkelmann,
Librarian of the Vatican, F. R. S. &c. &c.
By HENRY FUSSELI, A.M.
LONDON:
Printed for the Translator, and Sold by A. Millar,
in the Strand, 1765.
TO
The Lord Scarsdale.
My Lord,
With becoming gratitudefor your Lordship’s condescensionin granting such a nobleAsylum to a Stranger, I humblypresume to shelter this Translationunder your Lordship’s Patronage.
If I have been able to do justiceto my Author, your Lordship’saccurate Jugment, and fine Taste,will naturally protect his Work:But I must rely wholly on your[vi]known Candour and Goodness forthe pardon of many imperfectionsin the language.
I am, with the most profoundrespect,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s
Most obliged, most obedient, and most humble Servant,
Henry Fusseli.
London,
10 April, 1765.
GRAIIS INGENIUM
&c.
ON THE
IMITATION
OF THE
Painting and Sculpture of the GREEKS.
I. Nature.
To the Greek climate we owe theproduction of Taste, and fromthence it spread at length over all the politerworld. Every invention, communicated byforeigners to that nation, was but the feedof what it became afterwards, changing[2]both its nature and size in a country, chosen,as Plato[1] says, by Minerva, to be inhabitedby the Greeks, as productive of every kindof genius.
But this Taste was not only originalamong the Greeks, but seemed also quitepeculiar to their country: it seldom wentabroad without loss; and was long