Before Period Effects

Art

The art is the first step through which the spirit takes consciousness of art itself, because, through it, man becomes aware of himself or situations that concern him by tangible forms (pictures, words, music, etc..) . Also in the art spirit lives in an immediate and intuitive that fusion between subject and object, spirit and nature, which theorizes conceptually idealistic philosophy, arguing that nature is nothing but a manifestation of the spirit. This is because the experience of artistic beauty, such as in front of a Greek statue, spirit and nature are perceived as a whole, as in the statue of the object (marble) is already spiritualized nature, that is the tangible manifestation of a spiritual message, and the subject (the artistic idea) spirit is already naturalized, or concept embodied and made visible.
Hegel's dialectical art history into three stages: the symbolic art, classical art and romantic art. ^
symbolic art, typical of Eastern nations, is characterized by the imbalance between content and form, namely the inability to express a spiritual message in ways appropriate sensitive. Living expression of this imbalance and this inability is the use of the symbol and the tendency towards the bizarre and gorgeous, just witnessing the immaturity and the labor of this first moment of art. ^
Art classic features a harmonious balance between spiritual content and sensible form, as implemented by the human figure, which is the only sensible form in which
the art can fully represent and manifest. As such, the classical art itself as the pinnacle of artistic perfection.
^ The romantic art is characterized by an imbalance between spiritual content and sensible form, as the spirit acquires consciousness that any sensible form is no longer enough to express in a complete spiritual inwardness, which in fact prefer to turn to philosophy, or making art itself a sort of philosophy, in which the content overflows the form. In other words, if art symbolic spiritual message is so poor that they find expression proper shape, romantic art is so rich that any tangible form to find inadequate.
This determines the so-called "crisis" of modern art. The beautiful days of Greek and the Golden Age of the Middle Ages advanced are gone. No one sees more in the works of art the highest expression of the idea, we respect the art and is admired, but undergoes analysis of thought to recognize the function and place. The artist himself can not escape the influence of rational culture, which depends ultimately on opinion on his work: "In all these reports - says Hegel - Art is and remains for us, what its ultimate fate, a thing of the past. "
This "death of art" would not mean (such as Benedetto Croce will) like a funeral in fact, but as his inability to express the deep spirituality of modern times. In fact, what has disappeared and can not return it, according to Hegel, the supreme value of art, that the consideration that it was the highest and most complete manifestation of the Absolute. Can not return, in other words, the classical form of art. But the art is and remains a category of absolute spirit.