Reframing the Art of the Imperial Republic

Abstract

Nobody wants the social history of art to be, in Hegel's words, external activity the wiping-off of some drops of rain or specks of dust from the [artistic] fruit, so to speak one which erects an intricate scaffolding of the dead elements of their outward existence the language, the historical circumstances, and so on; but to do more than this is difficult, especially with this kind of fruit.