Greece reawakening : Germanic Hellenism in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

In 1764 Johann Joachim Winckelmann published his famous work, History of the Art of Antiquity, in which he named the dominant characteristics of Greek art to be "noble simplicity and serene greatness." This marked a revolution in German thought in the late 18th century that continued into the nineteenth century. What followed was a period in literature known as classical, but this neo-Hellenism was based on the works of Winckelmann and his followers rather than ancient Greece. This paper explores Germany in the late 18th century through the nineteenth century which led to this artistic idealism of faraway, ancient Greece and in what ways this "tyranny of Greece over Germany" effected some of the key authors of this period. The historical and cultural aspects of Germany in the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century and personal motivations of the authors which led to this artistic idealism of faraway, ancient Greece will be discussed.