Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The world Goethe lived in
- 2 Goethe the writer and literary history
- 3 Goethe the poet
- 4 Goethe the dramatist
- 5 Faust
- 6 Weimar Classicism
- 7 Goethe and the Weimar theatre
- 8 Goethe’s prose fiction
- 9 Autobiographical writings
- 10 In defence of experience
- 11 Goethe and gender
- 12 Goethe and the visual arts
- 13 Goethe and the political world
- 14 Religion and philosophy
- 15 Reception in Germany and abroad
- A guide to further reading
- Index
12 - Goethe and the visual arts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The world Goethe lived in
- 2 Goethe the writer and literary history
- 3 Goethe the poet
- 4 Goethe the dramatist
- 5 Faust
- 6 Weimar Classicism
- 7 Goethe and the Weimar theatre
- 8 Goethe’s prose fiction
- 9 Autobiographical writings
- 10 In defence of experience
- 11 Goethe and gender
- 12 Goethe and the visual arts
- 13 Goethe and the political world
- 14 Religion and philosophy
- 15 Reception in Germany and abroad
- A guide to further reading
- Index
Summary
The visual arts were for Goethe a subject of intense interest and concern. His work on them is not restricted to the writings on art and art theory collected in the five relevant volumes of the Frankfurt edition (FA i, vols. xviii-xxii); it also includes drawings, sketches, colour plates, copper engravings, illustrations to his theatre productions, portraits and scientific illustrations. Over his lifetime he produced an enormous body of texts on visual art, architecture, sculpture and painting. He knew personally many of the most talented artists of his time and had an intimate knowledge of much western and later also oriental art history. As a result of his travels in Italy and throughout Europe, he became acquainted with numerous prominent art experts, and through his initiatives as publisher, art critic and administrator he tried to promote certain artistic ideals and to influence the content and spectrum of ongoing artistic endeavours. He recommended travel to Greece, to the ruins of Paestum in Italy, and across Sicily in order that people might participate in his insights into the aesthetics of classicism, yet he also drew attention to the importance of local history as documented in both high art and popular culture, and his own literary work liberally mixes colourful scenes from the carnival and the marketplace, local history and everyday life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Goethe , pp. 193 - 206Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
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