Storia delle arti del disegno presso gli antichi
This is an 1779 Milan edition of Johann Joachim Winckelmann's history of ancient art, printed at the Imperial Monastery of S. Ambrogio Maggiore and aimed at scholars and collectors of antiquity. Its plates are line engravings of classical gems, reliefs and statues, shown as outlined figures inside oval or rectangular frames on plain grounds. A designer could take the clean contour drawing, the oval medallion framing, and the sparse hatched shading as models for classical ornament.
