The 2018 anniversary of the death of the illustrious art historian and archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann constitutes for the Vatican Museums the opportunity to prepare a "diffused" exhibition for which this volume, produced in Italian and in English, is intended as a concise informative catalogue aimed addressed to the general public of visitors.

In addition to the celebration of his person and his aesthetic thought, the leitmotif of the catalogue and exhibition is the great German scholar's relationship with the Pope's Museums during his stay in Rome, and in especially with the treasures preserved here. The themes include his illuminating Roman stay, the systematization of the history of Egyptian art, the importance of Etruscan art, his love of classical art, the influence of Winckelmann's thought on the restoration of ancient works, the experience of direct analysis of the works, attendance of the Vatican Library, and the development of
Neoclassicism.

The catalogue includes the fifty most representative Vatican works in Winckelmann's studies, many of which are presented as an example of the achievement of artistic perfection: the Apollo of the Belvedere, the Laocooen, the Hermes. The works are presented in in-depth technical notes which, in addition to providing basic data - date, location of the find, collocation and inventory numbers - also offer an iconographic and stylistic description enriched by the critical point of view of the German scholar.