This idealized posthumous portrait depicts Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who is credited with the reevaluation of ancient Greek art through his work as an archaeologist and a pioneer in writing art history. His History of Ancient Art, published in 1764, became a bedrock of neoclassical thinking about the idealized European body as well as a key reference for travelers. In his portrait, Winckelmann holds a Greek edition of Homer’s Iliad, an allu-sion to his knowledge of classical poetry. The portraitist, Mengs, was a friend in Winkelmann’s often homoerotically charged social circle in Rome, but he worked throughout Europe.
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