Hegel's Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art, Vol. I

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It is not every century that is so fortunate to receive a vision of Fine Art that illuminates the foundations of Art and what Art means for the human species. Hegel first distinguishes between ordinary Aesthetics and his notion of Fine Art, that is, Human Creativity. Nature can be Aesthetic, but only Humans create Fine Art, and it is Fine Art that Hegel wishes to explore in this masterpiece. In great detail, Hegel explains why his concept of Spiritual Freedom is central to Art, just as it is central to Politics, to Religion, to Free Thinking and to Science. Fine Art is distinguished by its direct and personal appeal. A human hand fashions a single object with such care, devotion, skill and imagination that it may be treasured by millions for centuries. This is no act of conditioned reflexes, but an act of profound Freedom and awareness of Spiritual reality. The key to Art, for Hegel, is always the Spirit. If the Spirit can shine through, then a work of Fine Art can be a great work. The more the Universal Spirit of humanity shows forth, the more attractive that work is to the millions. For that reason, Hegel suggested, the greatest Art is religious Art or any Art that rises to the level of the spiritually sublime, as in Tragedy. Hegel considered that there is a hierarchy among the Arts. The Arts with the most matter are always a little bit lower than the Arts with less matter. For example, for Hegel, Architecture is the lowest form of Art, because the Original Idea can rarely be perfectly executed through coordinating and budgeting the large crowd of workers needed to complete it. Sculpture is higher than Architecture, but the limitations of the large marble mass were considerable when compared with the relative Freedom offered by oil on a canvas exhibiting colors, shapes and light, said Hegel. Higher than Painting are Dance and Music, Art forms that again require many people. However, the substance of these Art forms is not found simply as the human body or the musical instrument, rather, it is found within fleeting motions of the body, or the fleeting vibrations of the instrument. Music is ethereal, and when a musician stops playing, all Music itself stops. Further, Music is invisible to the eye, audible to the ear but also to the heart, and has the capability of manipulating human emotions in the most unique manner. But the highest form of Art, said Hegel, is Poetry, and the highest form of Poetry is Tragic Drama. Drama is an imitation of Life - not just as in Comedy, the external vagaries of Life, but the inner Life of the human being who suffers and who dies. Hegel remained a Christian all his life, although he was, as Cyril O'Regan aptly demonstrated, a Heterodox Christian. So we should not be surprised when we read that the Tragic Drama of Christ was, for Hegel, the highest expression of Fine Art, and a narrative that could not be repeated enough times by the Artists of each century.

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