THE END OF ART:

THE FREEDOM OF ROMANTIC ART IN HEGEL

Abstract

This article aims to address the hegelian conceptin of the “end of art”, whose  focus is the realization of freedom that the Absolute Spirit developed in its mediation between the particular forms of symbolic, classical, and romantic art. We seek to analyze how art frees itself in the overflowing of form into pure content, realized in the triad of romantic art: passing through painting, through music, and arriving, in its suspension, at poetry, in wchin the Absolute Spirit turns increasinggly toward its interiority, represented here by the artst’s inspiration. The hegelian system precisely exposes the process of self-exposition of this spiritual content, which becomes so profound that it overflows sensible forms, making art insufficient to Express it fully. To this end, the article focuses on the Lectures on Aesthetics, and we explore the Absolute Spirit in its quest for freedom and self-knowledge. In this process, content transcends form, and art gives way to more abjective forms of understanding, such as religion and philosophy. Finally, we argue that the hegelian idea of na “end of art” is, therefore, a suspension (Aufhebung), a passage to a higher stage of the Absolute Spirit, free from the limitations of sensible representation toward the realization of its content.