French Literature Reviews - 2026

Schlegel: The Doctrine of Art
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

La doctrine de l'art by August Wilhelm Schlegel

Translated from German by Marc Géraud and Marc Jimenez – with a foreword by Jean-Luc Nancy

Éditions Klincksieck

« Collection d'esthétique » 70
2007
352 pages
isbn : 978-2-252-03631-0

34€

Publisher's overview:

Schlegel's doctrine of art – "Kunstlehre" (drawn from his Berlin lectures) – aims to be a synthesis of art theory, criticism, and history. It is rooted both in the art of the Ancients – along with its theorists, Winckelmann, Lessing, and Hemsterhuis – and in the art of the Moderns, particularly emerging Romanticism.
It posits that art MUST be, meaning that beauty must be brought into existence. The work of art is expression and presentation: it is symbolic. It is also meaningful, an expression of the absolute and the infinite, and a creator of nature; according to Schlegel, it restores lost original human unity.

Table of Contents Introduction Burke: A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful Kant: Critique of the Power of Judgment Overview and Classification of the Fine Arts Sculpture Bas-Relief Architecture Painting Landscape Gardening Music

August Wilhelm Schlegel stands as a central figure of early German Romanticism, an intellectual movement that reshaped European aesthetics, literary criticism, and philosophy around the turn of the nineteenth century. Thinkers of this period sought to transcend classical strictures by emphasizing the expressive and symbolic capacities of the artistic imagination. The historical backdrop of these developments includes intense engagement with Greek antiquity alongside a growing valuation of modern subjectivity, creating a framework where artistic creation was viewed not merely as imitation, but as a profound philosophical act.

This volume presents Schlegel's formulation of art theory, criticism, and history as drawn from his Berlin lectures. The text connects classical theorists such as Winckelmann, Lessing, and Hemsterhuis with the emerging tenets of Romanticism. It addresses the necessity of art and beauty, the expressive and symbolic nature of the artistic work, and the relationship between art, the absolute, and human unity. Readers interested in the history of aesthetics and German Romantic thought may find this publication relevant to their pursuits.