La traduzione italiana del Saggio sull'allegoria specialmente per l'arte di Winckelmann (1766) come esperienza cognitiva e visuale

In one of his last publications, the Attempt at an Allegory, Particularly for Art [Versuch einer Allegorie besonders für die Kunst] published in 1766, Winckelmann engages with “general concepts” –a term he had already employed in his Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and the Art of Sculpture of 1755 [Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in Malerei und Bildhauerkunst] – discussing allegories by means of which the Ancients had tried to mould their civic and religious rites. Working on this matter, Winckelmann seeks to single out the specific traits of the languages of art recurring foremost to the polyvalent term “Bild/er”, both in its singular and plural form, in order to define images on artifacts, complemented by the definition of “allegorical” [allegorisches/e]. Conversely, he avoids the term “Symbol”, deeming it inaccurate. Indeed, Winckelmann sensed that towards the end of the 18th century the interest in symbols would possibly affect the relationship between rhetoric and logos. He therefore shunned abstract concepts pertaining to invisible metaphysics rather than anthropology. Along with the decay of allegorical narratives, art and the religious dimension –still closely linked in Greek mythology– would soon miss their mutual efficacy in representation and that symbol would infringe the pact between imago and historia. Our analysis will be concerned with the linguistic features of Winckelmann’s text and the challenge of translating the notion of “Bilder” in the context of his work.