Antonio da
Correggio, The Nativity (La Notte) c. 1529–1530
Oil on canvas, 256.5 cm × 188 cm.
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
For Hegel, the “task and vocation” of art
history “consists in the aesthetic appreciation of individual works of art and
in a knowledge of the historical circumstances which condition the work of art
externally; it is only an appreciation, made with sense and spirit, and
supported by the historical facts, which can penetrate into the entire
individuality of a work of art.”[1] Like a human person, each artwork is singular and
only makes sense within its historical context, so that aesthetics requires
detailed knowledge not just of the history of art, but of the history of art
history and criticism; “far from writing about art as an abstract
metaphysician, Hegel had a number of distinguished examples of German
scholarship before him when he was working on the historical framework of the Aesthetics.”[2] Hegel remarks
in the introduction to his Lectures on
Fine Art that real knowledge of art requires “a precise acquaintance with
the immeasurable realm of individual works of art, ancient and modern…Further,
every work of art belongs to its own time, its own people, its own environment,
and depends on particular historical and other ideas and purposes;
consequently, scholarship in the field of art demands a vast wealth of
historical, and indeed very detailed, facts” (Hegel, 1998:14).
