Summary: Lectures on Aesthetics (page 9)

c/ Romantic Art

This third form of art reconstructs the accomplished union of the Idea with its reality, yet simultaneously returns to their opposition—though at a higher level.

This is Christian art.

In classical art, the statue of a god is presented as a perfect representation of that god, whose truth is fully embodied in the bodily human figure¹ that represents it. In Christian statuary, by contrast, the human figure presents itself as an imperfect representation of divine truth, which is Spirit.

The content of representation is no longer corporeal but spiritual interiority. The truth of Romantic art is self-conscious interiority²: Spirit itself.

The content—the mind—is no longer bound to its representation—the body—as though they were a perfect match. This inadequacy becomes fully conscious: the divine appears as transcending the sensuous even in the very act of incarnation, making us aware of its transcendence.

If, in Romantic art, the Absolute still requires exteriority in order to express itself (which is why it remains a reconciliation of opposites), the sensuous is nonetheless accepted—but only as inessential and ephemeral.

Each of these three art forms privileges different artistic disciplines (architecture, music, etc.).

In symbolic art, architecture is the predominant medium. This manipulation of matter, in a vain attempt to realise the Idea, is characteristic of the earliest epochs of humanity.

The aim is to spiritualise matter through symmetry: Through architecture, the external world is purified, symmetrically ordered, and finally returned to Spirit³.

Hegel employs a metaphor to illustrate the transition from one art form to another. The symbolic art's focus on architecture builds the temple of the god⁴.

The transition to classical art allows the god himself⁵ to be presented within it. Indeed, sculpture dominates this second era of art, as evidenced by the many statues of Greek gods.

Romantic art is reached when the architect has erected the temple and the sculptor has placed the statue of the god within it. At this stage, the god is now confronted, for the third time, with the community.

Since its content is Spirit, Romantic art must reveal this in all its richness; consequently, the material of art had to be enriched in turn. It evolved—first into colour, then into sound, then into word. Painting, music, and poetry are thus the artistic forms favoured in Romantic art.

Notably, from colour to word, the material itself becomes progressively less sensuous and increasingly spiritualised.

These three forms of art represent the universal moments of the Idea of beauty⁶.

It is as the external realisation of this Idea that the vast Pantheon of art rises, of which the self-grasping Spirit of the beautiful is the builder and architect, but which only the history of the world will complete in its millennial development.⁷

End of introduction.

¹ p.141
² ibid.
³ p.146
⁴ ibid.
⁵ ibid.
⁶ p.151
⁷ p.152