PAUL A. KOTTMAN AND MICHAEL SQUIRE (EDS.) THE ART OF HEGEL’S AESTHETICS Hegelian Philosophy and the Perspectives of Art History MORPHOMATA This volume explores one of modernity’s most profound and far-reaching philosophies of art: the Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik, delivered by Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel in the 1820s. The book has two overriding objectives: first, to ask how Hegel’s work illuminates specific periods and artworks in light of contemporary art-historical discussions; second, to explore how art history helps us make better sense and use of Hegelian aesthetics. In bringing together a range of internationally acclaimed critical voices, the volume establishes an important disciplinary bridge between aesthetics and art history. Given the recent resurgence of interest in ‘global’ art history, and calls for more comparative approaches to ‘visual culture’, contributors ask what role Hegel has played within the field – and what role he could play in the future. What can a historical treatment of art ac- complish? How should we explain the ‘need’ for certain artistic forms at different historical junctures? Has art history been ‘Hegelian’ without fully acknowledging it? Indeed, have art historians shirked some of the funda- mental questions that Hegel raised? KOTTMAN, SQUIRE (EDS.) – THE ART OF HEGEL’S AESTHETICS MORPHOMATA EDITED BY GÜNTER BLAMBERGER AND DIETRICH BOSCHUNG VOLUME 39 EDITED BY PAUL A. KOTTMAN AND MICHAEL SQUIRE THE ART OF HEGEL’S AESTHETICS Hegelian Philosophy and the Perspectives of Art History WILHELM FINK unter dem Förderkennzeichen 01UK1505. Die Verantwortung für den Inhalt der Veröffentlichung liegt bei den Autoren. Bibliografische Informationen der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek: Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen National­ biblio grafie; detaillierte Daten sind im Internet über www.dnb.d­nb.de abrufbar. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Dieses Werk sowie einzelne Teile desselben sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenen Fällen ist ohne vorherige schriftliche Zustimmung des Verlags nicht zulässig. © 2018 Wilhelm Fink Verlag, ein Imprint der Brill­Gruppe (Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Niederlande; Brill USA Inc., Boston MA, USA; Brill Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore; Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn, Deutschland) Internet: www.fink.de Umschlaggestaltung und Entwurf Innenseiten: Sichtvermerk, Kathrin Roussel Satz: Sichtvermerk, Kathrin Roussel und Philipp Brillinger Printed in Germany Herstellung: Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn ISBN 978-3-7705-6285-5 CONTENTS Acknowledgments 7 Note on editions and abbreviations 10 List of black and white illustrations (Figures) 13 List of colour illustrations (Plates) 20 MICHAEL SQUIRE Introduction: Hegel and art history 23 WHITNEY DAVIS The Absolute in the mirror: Symbolic art and cosmological perspectivism 69 JULIA PETERS Hegel on Spirit, nature and the function of classical art 101 MICHAEL SQUIRE Unser Knie beugen wir doch nicht mehr? Hegel, classical art and the Reformation of art history 125 FRED RUSH Still life and the end of painting 159 HANNEKE GROOTENBOER The self­conscious image: Painting and Hegel’s idea of reflection 189 ROBERT PIPPIN Hegel on painting 211 T.J. CLARK Beauty lacks strength: Hegel and the art of his century 239 PAUL A. KOTTMAN Hegel and Shakespeare on the pastness of art 263 INGVILD TORSEN The future of Hegelian art history: On the body in late modern sculpture 303 SEBASTIAN GARDNER Art’s loss of vocation: Hegel and Philosophical Romanticism 331 PAUL A. KOTTMAN Envoi: The art of Hegel’s aesthetics 365 Notes on contributors 383 Plates 391 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The origins of this book lie in a series of conversations between the two editors. From October 2014 to March 2015, we both held concurrent fel­ lowships at the Morphomata International Center for Advanced Studies – Genesis, Dynamics and Mediality of Cultural Figurations, University of Cologne: housed in neighbouring apartments (at the university guest­ house on Behringstraße), and working in adjacent offices, we began to talk through all aspects of Cologne life. As topics moved from German politics and the looming ‘Brexit’ vote to our own academic work, a shared interest in the history of aesthetics quickly emerged. Fuelled by copious amounts of Earl Grey tea, our talk soon began to home in upon Hegel. Neither of us could claim to have got to grips with all aspects of the Lectures on Aesthetics; indeed, it was clear that we had rather different approaches, and not altogether similar assessments of what a ‘Hegelian’ worldview looked like (or for that matter its appeal). We nonetheless shared a fundamental respect for Hegel’s approach: unlike so many modern­day academics, Hegel was able to sieve through the details so as to formulate those all­ important, bigger­picture questions. As our discussions developed – and various points of agreement, discrepancy and confusion crystallised – we began to involve others in our conversations. We soon hit upon the idea of an experimental, in­ ternational workshop – an occasion to bring together philosophers, art historians and critics. Our plan was always to involve a range of partici­ pants, with expertise spanning the entire width and breadth of Hegel’s art historical account. Some of our collaborators would be internationally renowned Hegelian experts; others would be invited precisely because we were unsure about what their contribution would be (and we were curious to find out …). We attempted to identify speakers from differ­ ent academic backgrounds and countries; we likewise wanted to strike a balance between established and younger scholars, in the hope that our motley crew would reflect the past, present and future of their disciplines. 8 The workshop took place at King’s College London from 8–10 June 2016, convened under the auspices of the Centre of Hellenic Studies (part of the King’s Arts and Humanities Research Institute).1 Financial support came from a number of different quarters: in addition to seed­funding from King’s College London and the New School (the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College and the New School for Liberal Arts), we received generous funding from both the Leverhulme Trust and the Morphomata International Center for Advanced Studies. Organisational assistance was likewise offered on both sides of the Channel – above all, from Alex Creighton (in London), and from Thierry Greub and Semra Mägele (in Cologne). It is a pleasure to thank numerous others who also added to the workshop’s success: in particular, Ian Jenkins – who, as Senior Curator, organised a special ‘Hegelian’ tour of the British Museum and a closing reception in the Department of Greece and Rome. We are also grate­ ful to those who introduced, chaired and responded to sessions – Roderick Beaton, Dietrich Boschung, Jaś Elsner, William Fitzgerald, Simon Goldhill, Sacha Golob, Russell Goulbourne, Katharina Lorenz, Sebastian Matzner, Stephen Melville, Jeremy Tanner and Joanna Woodall. We had little inkling that a conference on ‘The Art of Hegel’s Aesthet­ ics’ would spark the interest that it did. In total, we were able to accom­ modate up to 150 people within the ‘River Room’ at King’s. But it quickly became apparent that many more wanted to join our conversation: there was a waiting list of almost twice that number, and many other interested scholars contacted us by email. It was for this reason that we decided to transform the workshop – which was always intended to air ideas and to prompt discussion – into the edited volume at hand. Papers have been lightly revised to fit the published format, but we have tried to keep the informal and experimental thinking that spurred the original gathering. Predictably, the published volume has had to proceed without all the contributors who were originally invited to London: although the final book cannot include their chapters, we much look forward to reading elsewhere the papers by Joshua Billings (‘Hegel’s tragic poets’), Lydia Goehr (‘Mono­ chromy and monotony: On the colour and tone of the absolute in Hegel’s Aesthetics’), Ludwig Jäger (‘Zeichen/Künste: Der semiologische Subtext der Hegelschen Ästhetik’) and Richard Neer (‘Hegel and the classical’). 1 For further information – and a hyperlink to a video of the opening session of the workshop – see www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/ahri/eventrecords/2015–2016/ CHS/hegel.aspx. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 9 We end by adding three additional words of thanks. First and fore­ most, we are grateful to all the volume’s contributors, who engaged with the editors – and most importantly with each other – with such warmth, comradery and enthusiasm. Second, it is a pleasure to thank Dietrich Boschung (co­director of the Morphomata International Center for Ad­ vanced Studies), whose support and encouragement have been fundamen­ tal throughout. Third and finally, we thank those who helped with the practical production of the volume: Thierry Greub for liaising with the press; Mary Morton, for her assistance with copy­editing; and Kathrin Roussel of Sichtvermerk, for typesetting the volume with characteristic care, patience and attention to detail. It was never our intention that this project should advance some sort of ‘party line’, still less that it should aim at offering any ‘last word’. Rather, the variety of perspectives reflected in this book – as indeed the range of evaluative responses to Hegelian aesthetics – continues the spirit of our original discussions in Cologne. Whether or not one believes Hegel’s dictum that ‘art is and remains a thing of the past’, we very much hope that our conversations about Hegelian aesthetics will stretch long into the future. Michael Squire (London) & Paul A. Kottman (New York) 10 NOTE ON EDITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS One of the difficulties in working on the text of Hegel’s aesthetics is that there is in fact no ‘text’ to speak of. The Lectures on Aesthetics – or Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik – were never published during Hegel’s lifetime.1 Hegel did commit part of his thinking about the history of aesthetics to print (above all, in sections 556–563 of his 1830 Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissen schaften im Grundrisse).