The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 2 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
(_b_) _Secondly_, however, the significant character of allegorical
material is at once _defined_ in its abstraction, and only by means of
such definition is it intelligible; the expression of such particular
aspects, for the reason that it is not immediately unfolded in that
which is in the first instance a purely _generalized_ conception of
personality, is consequently forced to appear alongside of the subject,
simply as the predicates which elucidate the same. This separation of
subject from predicate, generality from particularity, is the second
feature of the frostlike appearance of the allegory. The envisagement
of the determinate and specific qualities is borrowed from the modes of
expression, activity, and resultant effects which make their appearance
in virtue of the significance, when that secures its realized form
in concrete existence, or from the various means which subserve it
in its true realization. For example, war is delineated through
weapons, cannons, drums, and standards, etc.; the yearly seasons, by
an enumeration of the flowers and fruits, which pre-eminently spring
up under the favouring influence of the particular seasons. Objects
of this kind may further receive purely symbolical relations, as, for
instance, Justice may be brought home to our minds by means of the
scales and fillet, Death by that of the hour-glass and scythe. For the
reason, however, that the significance in allegory is the dominant
factor, and the more specialized presentment is subordinate to it
under an equally abstract form, for it is, after all, itself merely
an abstraction, the embodiment of such definable characteristics only
secures the validity of an _attribute_ pure and simple.