Profoundly influenced by his immersion in the art, literature, culture, and philosophy of ancient Greece, Johann Joachim Winckelmann brought about a revolutionary reevaluation of the art of the ancient world that had enormous impact on the aesthetic sensibilities of his own time and that is still felt today. Henry Hatfield suggests that as the founder of German Hellenism Winckelmann was, aside from Frederick II of Prussia, the most famous German between Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His contributions to the development of new disciplines such as art history and archaeology are well known, but he also influenced the course of literature, music, and plastic art not only in Germany but also in the rest of Europe. He influenced the writing of history and changed the course of German literature by urging the primacy of ancient Greek rather than Roman models. Even the prose style...