510 
bellifhed their capital, and the free ufe of 
which was always one of the great advan- 
tages of Drcfden. The favour, which a 
magnificent court then fhewed more fre- 
quertly, and in the Righe& degree, to the 
elegant arts, made, in his early youth, a 
Jaiting impreffion upon him, and deter- 
mined him to apply himfelf to the ftudy 
of architecture. In this he was moft hap- 
pily feconded by his intimate acquaintance 
with Mr. Mazer, then mafter-mafon of 
the town, It was under his dire€tion that 
he laid the foundation of his extenfive 
knowlede, and he worked kimfelf for fome 
time 4s-a mafon’s apprentice at the build- 
ing of a wing of the Eleétoral palace. 
This circumftance deferves to be held up 
as a model to our prefent architects and 
dileitantis: “The future ‘archite& ought 
always to begin his career with the trade 
of a mafon, and true confummate archi- 
tects can only come from the workthip of 
the fione-cutter. To Weinlig, this ichool 
was the foundation of all his fubfequent 
progrefs, and Le Re7, with whom he got 
acquainted at Paris, efteemed him particu- 
larly on account of his mathematically juft 
knowledge of the mafon’s and ftone-cut- 
ter’s bufinefs. In the year.1766, Wein- 
lig fet out on an architectonick journey 
through France and Italy, which, by his 
theoretical and praétical knowledge, was 
yendered extremely advantagecus to him. 
He would often, in his more advanced uge, 
fhake his kead at the tours of our mOdern 
unwinged wid-geefe—fo he called the: 
young architects, who, without any qua- 
lifications, crowd over the, Alps—and, as 
a {worn enemy to all boafting and parade, 
would give a free vent to his fatirical hu- 
mour, particularly on the new fafhioned 
decoration- men. At Paris he had, in the 
houfe of the celebrated author of the work 
on the Archite&iure of the Greeks, the 
mof defirable opportunity of feeing and 
inftructing himfelf by many not yet pub- 
lifhed drawings of the moft beautiful ruins 
of clafiical antiquity. He copied;-with 
great eagernefs and fkill, many of the plans 
and views recently imported from’ Greece 
and Sicily, and preferved thefe cepies with 
the utmoft care. Many of thewpriginal 
drawings being -brought to the King’s 
wardrobe, have never appeared in print, 
and as they are, in all appearance, lof for 
ever, thefe copies, which mufi ftill exift in 
the port-folio of the deceafed, are of the 
higheft value. Cbhalgriz was then building 
the new opera-houle, which likewile be- 
came a very inftructive {chool to. him. 
‘Thence he went by Lombardy to Rome, 
where he fayed almoft two years, except 
Account of Mr. Weinlig. 
[July Ty 
the time fpent in a trip to Naples, and © 
could only by the moft urgent domeftic 
circumftances, be prevailed upon to_return. 
He'communicated the fruits of this journey 
to his native country, in a work, Letters 
on Rome, &c. of which nine numbers or 
three volumes in quarto have appeared at 
Drefden, from 1781—87. He gives in it 
no hacknied common places, but his own 
remarks on the principal remains of an- 
cient architecture at Rome and Naples, and 
prefents many new ideas and views; for 
inftance, on the Theatres of the Ancients 5 ~ 
on the little Rotunda, commonly taken for 
a Temple of Bacchus, which, however, 
feems rather to have been a Baptifterion _ 
of Conftantine; on the Porticoes of Oéta- 
via, which he thinks to bea Propylaeum 3 
and in general on the’ conftruétion of 
columns and pillars. He often praifed the 
friendly inftruétion which, during his ftay 
at Rome, he had received from Winkel- 
man, without fuffering himfelf thereby to 
follow blindly the judgment of his friend. 
His Letters contain many convincing 
proofs of his impartiality. In the 24th ~ 
Letter, for inftance, he refutes, with a 
candour and folidity peculiar to himilelf, 
Winkelman’s opinion, that the good things 
to be found on the Triumphal Arch of 
Conftantine, were taken from the Tri- 
umphal Argh of Trajan. He had begun 
already at Rome to write down his Re- 
marks on Winkelman’s Annotations upon 
the Hiffory of Architeéture, which would 
certainly have furnifiied many a valuable 
addition to Fea’s Corrections, in his edi- | 
tion of the Storia delle Aarti, tom. ui. if 
his laborious occupations had given him 
fafficient leifure. His diftinguifhed merits 
were not regarded wjth indifference after 
his return to his native country, and he 
received, in the year 1773, the important, 
but very troublefome, poft of treafurer of 
the commiffion for public buildings. He 
dedicated the leifure, which this office only © 
{paringly allowed him, to his architectonic 
Atndies, the fruits of which were two 
numbers of Euwvres ad’ Architecture, pub- 
lihed in 1784—85. He partook willing- 
lyin each well-concerted undertaking for 
the improvement of the arts, and a farther 
xtention of tafte; and feconded Baron 
Racknitz, in his Reprefentations of the! Tafte 
of differcut. Nations (a very {plendid 
and valuable work, which was finifhed 
laf year, with the fourth. number), by 
fome,very .interefting treatifes, of which 
there is one in the laft number, refpecting 
the Gothic tafe, which Weinlig had al- 
ready defendew in his Letters on Rome, 
an Hiftorical Defcripticn of thé Cathedral at 
. Meelfine 
