Excavations
Shortly before his death in 1779 Mengs put forward the theory that The Most Beautiful Statues - Laocoon, Torso, Apollo Belvedere, Gladiator, and others - were not - as Winckelmann thought, original Greek masterpieces; they were later copies.
Fifty years earlier the English connoisseur and writer Jonathan Richardson had made a similar observation in a guidebook to Italy which Winckelmann himself regarded highly. Remarkably, these publications, and even the arrival into northern Europe of original Greek masterpieces, such as the sculpture from the Parthenon at the beginning of the 19th century, had little impact on the cultivated person's perception of the antique. The influence of the Most Beautiful Statues remained strong.