One of the most influential writers on art—his Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Art in Paintings and Sculpture was published in Dresden in 1755, and his History of Ancient Art appeared in 1764—Johann Joachim Winckelmann was also a close friend and admirer of Mengs, the leading exponent of the nascent Neoclassical movement in Rome. In this portrait, painted shortly after Winckelmann settled in Rome in 1755, the great writer/archaeologist is shown holding a Greek edition of Homer's Iliad.

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