Classicism in Action. Goethe´s Art Journal ´Propyläen´

The anthology considers for the first time the art journal Propyläen as a whole that was edited by Goethe in the years between 1798 and 1800. In the six issues of the Propyläen Goethe presented to the public his insights on art which he had gained during his years in Italy (1786-1788) and deepened in the years afterwards. In response to developments in contemporary art, Goethe systemised his ideas in discussion with the so-called Weimarer Kunstfreunde (Weimarian Art-lovers), who appeared as the collective author of the journal. Together with Schillers journal Die Horen, the Propyläen stands as the most important journal-project in the German language in the propagation and implementation of a classicising aesthetics at the end of the eighteenth century. In its ambitious programme and theoretical relevance it is comparable with his competitor, the Schlegel brothers Romantic journal Athenäum. The didactic impetus of the Propyläen is particularly apparent in its better-known texts, the theoretical essays on art and the Preisaufgaben. The journal also included a considerable number of art-historical essays and descriptions of artworks which have only attracted little interest to date. These texts are of great importance in that they represent a highly original development in the way modern thinkers engage with ancient art. With an awareness of the stylistic historicism of their normative aesthetics, the texts both generate and demonstrate a new form of classicism in action. This enterprise, which was of great significance for the history of aesthetics, will be placed in a new light by this anthology. Goethes and Schillers texts are included in the complete editions of their works, but are isolated from the context of the journal and are often incomplete and are put into different contexts. The articles of the assiduous contributor Johann Heinrich Meyer have mostly been overlooked. It has therefore been impossible to perceive the journal as a collective work, which would allow for new insights into the conflicting tensions which constituted the classicising aesthetic of Weimar. The anthology situates the texts within their contexts, and thus provides a key resource for future research, for literary as well as art studies.