“Es gibt keine Dialektik der Kunstformen”: il simbolico in Hegel e il problema delle forme d’arte

Résumé

This article revisits the problem of the historical development of Hegel’s Kunstformen through Paolo D’Angelo’s interpretation of the symbolic. Against both the view that the symbolic is a marginal component of Hegel’s aesthetics and the claim that there is no genuine dialectic of the art forms, it argues that the symbol provides the key to understanding the internal logic of Hegel’s philosophy of art. Building on D’Angelo’s thesis that symbolism constitutes the fundamental structure of artistic signification, the article reconstructs the transition from symbolic to classical and romantic art as a dialectical development of symbolic meaning. From this perspective, classical art is not the definitive overcoming of symbolism but a moment within its unfolding, while romantic art reactivates symbolic mediation at a higher level. This reading offers a new perspective on the relation between form and content, Hegel’s alleged classicism, and the thesis of the “end of art”, presenting the symbolic as the central category through which art expresses absolute spirit