Die Kolonialisierung der Antike: Epistemizide in Winckelmanns Geschichte der Kunst

Résumé En

Is it possible to colonize ›time‹, which, unlike territories or people, is not immediately visibleand abstract? The article addresses this question in the context of the German-speaking 18th centuryand through Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s engagement with antiquity. To do so, it first draws ontheories from Global Epistemologies by Philippe Descola (on the nature-culture divide) and Boaventurade Sousa Santos (especially the ›epistemicide‹) to establish a theoretical framework for speaking abouta ›colonization of the past‹. The article then examines Winckelmann’s construction of a colonialantiquity in his letters and in the History of Art in Antiquity. The rhetoric and metaphors of the lettersreveal the idea of an antiquity that can be colonized and that is designed as an ›untouched field‹ orcapturable territory. Similarly, in the History of Art, this corresponds to the structuring of the past andthe construction of history through epistemicides, which expel the ›other‹ from the colonial space ofantiquity.