The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 2 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
A. In the _first_ it is the _concrete phenomenon_, whether the
selection be made from Nature or human events, incidents, and actions,
which constitutes both the point of departure in the process of
artistic conception, and the substance of essential weight in the
reproduction. It is no doubt exhibited solely on account of the more
general significance, which it contains and signifies, and is only so
far unfolded, that it may contribute to the object of embodying this
significance in a specific occurrence or condition cognate with it. The
comparison, however, of the general significance and the particular
case is not as yet _expressly_ set forth as _subjective_ activity, and
the entire reproduction will not merely be the embellishment of a work
which actually possesses a substantive position without it, but is set
forth as itself claiming to give the character of an independent whole.
The types of this class are the fable, the parable, the apologue, the
proverb, and the metamorphosis.
B. In the _second_ phase the _significance_ on the contrary is that
which is first presented to consciousness, and the concrete embodiment
is that which is merely incidental or accessory to it, possessing no
independent subsistency of its own, but appearing as wholly subordinate
to the significance, so that we are now also made more immediately
aware of the element of personal caprice in the selection of this
rather than any other image. This mode of production is unable in the
great majority of cases to reach the point of a fully perfected work
of art, and is consequently forced to leave the forms it supplies as
appurtenant to other artistic images. The important types of this
class are the riddle, the allegory, the metaphor, the image, and the
simile.
C. _Thirdly_, and in conclusion, if rather by way of supplement, we
have yet further to include within our list the didactic poem, and
purely descriptive poetry, inasmuch as in these types of poetry we
find, on the one hand, that the presentment of the general character
of the objects in the clearness under which they are made intelligible
to commonsense[80], no less than on the other that the exhibition of
their concrete appearance receives a substantially independent form,
and by doing so effects with elaborate completeness the severation of
that which only in its union and really reciprocal fusion is capable of
giving us a genuine work of art.