Scientific conference "Neoclassicism: the beginning and the end. On the 250th anniversary of the death of Winkelmann"

On Wednesday, October 3, at 12.00 in the White Hall of Russian Institute for the History of Arts there was be held a scientific conference “Neoclassicism: the Beginning and the End. To the 250th anniversary of the death of Winkelmann”.

Usually, in order to discuss classicism / neoclassicism in Saint Petersburg, an occasion is not needed. On the everyday, public, personal, professional, metaphysical, and such a level, there are always something to say on this issue. The fact that the classicism is already forever dead, or the fact that his idea in this city can never be exhausted, that it is endlessly tired or that there is always hope for his next triumphant return.

Neoclassicism can be discussed with no reason, but this time there is an excuse. July 8 marks the 250th anniversary of the death of a man who became the godfather of the most brilliant era in the history of European classicism. It is believed that Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s book The History of the Art of Antiquity played a key role in this work. So it is customary to write and say, but what do these words really mean? Can the book provoke the birth of a new classicist star, or is it just a myth? What generally promotes such things as the beginning and the end of the next neoclassical boom? This conference is devoted to these and other classical questions of studying the phenomenon of neoclassicism