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THE DRAMA OF J. J. WINCKELMANN
Read at the Fiftieth Anniversary Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Chicago, May, 1961 and at the New York Psychoanalytic Society, February, 1963.
The clinical material of this study deals with the celebrated scholar, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who occupies a signal position in the history of culture and of aesthetics. Although the accessible biographical data are striking and dramatic, Winckelmann has never been the subject of a pathography.
In June 1768, Europe's cultural elite was stunned by the news that Johann Joachim Winckelmann had been murdered. This Prussian founder of archaeology and history of Hellenic art, a leading figure in reawakening the study of classic antiquity in Europe, was on his way back to Rome from a brief journey to Austria and his native Germany. It was in Rome that he had attained the height of fame by his writings and discoveries. On his way to Rome, Winckelmann stopped in Trieste where he had to wait almost a week for a boat to take him to Ancona from where he expected to proceed to Rome. Here, he was murdered by a young man whom he had befriended in his hotel, a former cook, with a criminal record. His name was Archangeli.
The press expressed horror and indignation at the great man having fallen victim to a scoundrel whom he showed kindness. However, one correspondent reported with incredulous amazement that, shortly before his execution, the murderer claimed that, far from having sought the company of the distinguished foreigner, it was the latter who pursued him and could not have enough of his company. In fact, the two spent most of the time together, went for long walks and took all the evening meals in the young man's room. Winckelmann had made himself appear very important and mysterious