The Age of Figurative Theo-humanism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Franco Cirulli

   Pages 1-26

3. Winckelmann: The Responsibility of Aesthetic Response

   • Franco Cirulli

   Pages 27-56

4. Hemsterhuis and Herder: Sculptural Theo-humanism

   • Franco Cirulli

   Pages 57-83

5. Moritz, Wackenroder, Schelling: Tragic Theo–Aesthetics

   • Franco Cirulli

   Pages 85-140

6. The Jena Circle and Hegel: The Modernity of Painting, and the Return of the Classical

   • Franco Cirulli

   Pages 141-183

7. Conclusion

   • Franco Cirulli

   Pages 185-190

8. Back Matter

   Pages 191-191

   PDF

This is a comprehensive, integrated account of eighteenth and early nineteenth century German figurative aesthetics. The author focuses on the theologically-minded discourse on the visual arts that unfolded in Germany, circa 1754-1828, to critique the assumption that German romanticism and idealism pursued a formalist worship of beauty and of unbridled artistic autonomy. This book foregrounds what the author terms an “Aesthetics of Figurative Theo humanism”. It begins with the sculptural aesthetics of Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Gottfried Herder before moving on to Karl Philipp Moritz, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder and Friedrich Schelling. The reader will discover how this aesthetic tradition, after an initial obsession with classical sculpture, chose painting as the medium more suited to the modern self’s exploration of transcendence. This paradigm-shift is traced in the aesthetic discourse of Friedrich Schlegel and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In this work, the widespread prejudice that such aesthetics initiated a so-called “Modern Grand Narrative of the Arts” is deconstructed. One accusation directed at 18th century aesthetics has been that it realised into “Art” what had previously been a living, rich tissue of meaning: this work shows how Figurative Theo humanism's attention to aesthetic values was never detached from deeper theological and humanistic considerations. Furthermore, it argues that this aesthetic discourse never forgot that it emerged from modern disenchantment—far from occluding the dimension of secularization, it draws poignant meaning from it. Anyone with an interest in the current debates about the scope and nature of aesthetics(philosophers of art, theology, or religion) will find this book of great interest and assistance.

• Figurative Sublime
• History of the Idea of Beauty
• Philosophy and the Image
• Philosophy of Art
• Philosophy of Painting
• Philosophy of Sculpture
• Sculpture-Painting Paragone
• System of Fine Arts
• Temporality of Beauty
• Theological Aesthetics

• Boston University, Boston, USA

  Franco Cirulli

Franco Cirulli is a scholar in Aesthetics and in 18th and 19th century philosophy. He is the author of published essays on German Idealism, and on the theology of painting. In 2006, Routledge has published his Hegel’s Critique of Essence – A Reading of the Wesenslogik, a monograph devoted to Hegel’s metaphysics of natural necessity vs. freedom. He is a Lecturer in the Core Curriculum at Boston University.

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