Between Imitation and Expression. Art as "Copy" and "Radiation" of Emotions in Karl Heinrich Heydenreich's System of Aesthetics
Abstract
In the following paper I discuss an early expression theory of art, developed by the German kantian philosopher and professor at the Leipzig University, Karl Heinrich Heydenreich (1764-1801). In his 1790 publication System of Aesthetics, Heydenreich attempted to build a psychologically and semiotically based theory of artist's emotional self-expression, which has been described by historian Max Dessoir as a revolutionary break from the traditional view of art as imitation.
However, as I will argue, Heydenreichs expression theory is still partly terminologically and conceptually rooted in the discourse of imitation and should therefore be seen rather as a transition theory. I will nevertheless point out one truly non-mimetic concept in Heydenreichs theory, namely that of the emotional )radiation( of artworks, which already anticipates some of the later romanticist theories of expression.