In agreement with what we have just stated we shall find that it is from the particular way in which the _classical Ideal_ means of sculpture acquires a form of reality that most fully expresses it that the focus of our present inquiry is derived. Before, however, we are in a position to make an advance in this evolution of the ideal figure of sculpture we must by way of introduction demonstrate what kind of _content_ and _form_ are pertinent to the point of view of sculpture regarded as a specific art, and the course it follows by virtue of both until the point is reached where the classical Ideal is fully unfolded in the human form permeated by spiritual life, and in its shape as subject to spatial condition. From another point of view the classical Ideal stands, and falls with an individuality which is unquestionably substantive, but also to an equal degree essentially particularized, so that sculpture does not accept for its content the Ideal of the human form in its _generality_, but the Ideal as _specifically defined_; and, by virtue of this fact, it is variously displayed under forms distinct from each other. Such distinctions partly originate in the conception and _representation_ simply, in part are due to the _material_ in which such is realized, and which further, according to the way it affects execution, introduces points of severation on its own account, to both of which finally, as the last ground of difference, the various stages are related in the _historical_ development of sculpture. Having made these observations we will indicate the course of our inquiry as follows. In the _first_ place we have merely to deal with the _general_ determinants of the essential _content_ and _form_, such as are deducible from the notion of sculpture. _Secondly_, as a further step, we have to differentiate more closely the nature of the classical Ideal, in so far as it attains a determinate existence in its most artistic form. _Thirdly_, and finally, we shall find that sculpture avails itself of various types of presentation and material, and expands to a world of productions, in which, either under one aspect or another, the symbolical or romantic types also definitely assert themselves, albeit it is the classical which constitutes the true point of centre between them in plastic art[131]. CHAPTER I THE PRINCIPLE OF GENUINE SCULPTURE Sculpture, to put the matter in general terms, conceives the astounding project of making Spirit imagine itself in an exclusively material medium, and so shape this external medium that it is presented to itself in such and recognizes the presentment to be the objective form adequate to its ideal substance. In this respect our inquiry will take the following directions. _First_, we have the question what kind of _spiritual life_ is capable of being reproduced in this material of a form entirely sensuous and spatial.