“ITALIAN JOURNEY” BY J. W. GOETHE: BETWEEN WINCKELMANN AND HEGEL

Abstract

The text of the “Italian journey” analyzes the main objects of Goethe’s attention from the point of view of aesthetic systematization: natural phenomena (sea, mountains, vegetation, volcanoes), geological and botanical features of the area, various results of human activity and human behavior, abandoned and dilapidated architectural monuments of antiquity, ‘unconventional’ personalities. Panoramic contemplation of the area is seen as the main way of the author’s observations and the development of a specific worldview, which includes an attempt not only to separately consider the contradictory diversity of phenomena but also to harmonize it esthetically. Artistic allusions serve as one of the ways of such harmonization.
 The behavior of the human crowd and traces of human activity are presented by the author in the same stream with the natural phenomena of nature. As to the cultural assessment of modern Italians, the author describes them as happy, naive, simple-minded, and carefree but indifferent to the requirements of modern civilization and the cultural achievements of their ancestors. Aesthetically, the poet-observer relies on Winkelmann’s artistic postulate of “noble simplicity and calm greatness” and tries to reveal the contradictions of this system in terms of the aesthetics of the emerging new age. However, in general, Goethe’s aesthetics remains within the framework of the eighteenth century and includes universal concepts of contemporary art: integrity, harmony, revitalization, diversity, balance, and others. Therefore, the terminological apparatus and range of concepts tend not to Hegel (heroic, dramatic, lyrical, comic, etc.) but rather to the previous era.