The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 3 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 3 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
The _Etruscan_ works of art, that is, such whose genuineness is fully
authenticated by inscription, display the same imitation of Nature in
a yet higher degree; they are, however, freer in their pose and facial
characteristics, and, in fact, some of them approximate closely to the
portrait. Winckelmann, for example[209], mentions the statue of a man
which appears to be simply a portrait, though it would also appear to
date from a later period of art. It is a man of life-size, representing
some kind of orator, a magisterial, worthy sort of person. It is
executed with an extraordinary spontaneity and naturalness both of pose
and expression. Remarkable and significant it would indeed be, if we
did not recollect that on Roman soil it is not the Ideal but actual and
prosaic natural fact which is from the first at home.
(_β_) In the _second_ place truly _ideal_ sculpture, in order to reach
the highest point of classical art, has above all, to abandon the
mere type and the respect for what is traditional, and to give free
scope to the principle of spontaneity in artistic production. It is
alone possible to a freedom of this kind entirely to incorporate the
significance in its generality in the individual presentment of the
form; or, from another point of view, to elevate the sensuous forms
to the high level of a true expression of their spiritual import.
Only after doing this do we find the rigid and inflexible aspect
which is native to the origins of the more ancient art, no less than
the emphatic prominence of the significance over the individuality,
by means of which the content ought to be expressed, liberated as
that vital creation, in which the bodily forms also on their part
equally lose the abstract uniformity of a traditional, character,
and an illusive realism, and by doing so move in the direction
of the classical individuality, which quite as much makes, vital
the universality of the form in the particularity of its object
as, on the other hand, it makes the sensuousness and actuality of
the same throughout interfused with the expression of a soul's
inspiration[210]. A vitalization of this type affects not only the
form, but also the pose, movement, drapery, grouping, in short
every aspect of the sculptured figure to which I have already drawn
attention. What here communicates unity are these two principles of
universality and individualization. They have, however, not merely to
be brought into harmony in respect to the spiritual content, but also
in relation to the material form, before they can be participant in
the indissoluble association which is the classical type in its full
flavour. This identity, however, has itself a series of stages. In
other words, under one extreme we find that the Ideal still somewhat
inclines to the aspect of _loftiness_ and severity, which it is true
does not deprive the individual object of its living impulse and
movement, yet does tend to concentrate it more securely under the