Studia humaniora, or The Spiritual-Aesthetic Meaning of Art in Mature Friedrich Schlegel

Abstract

Schlegel sees philosophy and poetry (all forms of artistic expression) as two key components of human spiritual culture. In his mind they are tightly linked as dif­ferent ways of expressing divine truth and beauty. Both art and philosophy be­long to the sphere of the sophia, the difference being that philosophy aims at sep­arating truth from beauty and art expresses both in their unity. Philosophy, as a subdivision of prose, is focused on concepts and the “definite”, while poetry is focused on contemplation, expressive imagery, and the “indefinite”. Prose, in­cluding philosophy, communicates, while poetry depicts. Philosophy and poetry are united by their “transcendental view of things”, except that it is expressed in different forms. Schlegel distinguishes between exoteric and esoteric poetry. The former is limited to the expression of beauty in human life, while the latter attempts to express the essential foundations of the world in general. Schlegel considers three aspects of the poet’s approach to the object of expression: fancy, depiction, and inspiration. He pays a special attention to the philosophical atti­tude of art to time and eternity and to their dialectical link in artistic practice. He thinks of eternity as the fullness of the past, present, and future times. The creativity of every artist is guided personally by his “great idea”. Contem­plating this idea, the artist attempts to express it in images of his art. Schlegel sees the main task of philosophy and art in getting the human being closer to the sphere of the divine.