Johann Joachim Winckelmann (December 9, 1717 - June 8, 1768) a German art historian an archaeologist, was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. His would be the decisive influence on the rise of the neoclassical movement during the late eighteenth century. His writings influenced not only a new science of archaeolgy and art history but Western painting, sculpture, literature and even philosophy.