Estetica e critica d’arte in Konrad Fiedler

The present volume by Maria Rosaria De Rosa (m.derosa@unisa. it) participates in the recent scholarly trend that, from a variety of theoretical and critical standopoints, has rediscovered Konrad Fiedler’s legacy and has discussed his work within the broader and complex context of a reflection on form. More specifically, this study analyzes the historical conditions in which Fiedler, at the end of the nineteenth century, tested the idea of art theory and criticism as fields radically distinct and different from aesthetics. In the twentieth century, this idea has intersected, through a complex intertexual network of crossreferences, with some of the most significant approaches of the historical avant-guarde and the modern architecture movement. The study examines the relationship between aesthetics and art history, starting from Fiedler’s analyses of Kantian philosophy (especially the Critique of Judgement), Winckelmann’s thought, and Lessing’s work, in a dialogue that is never univocal or obvious, but rather productive and complex. The appendix features the Italian translation of the section of Fiedler’s Schriften that, under the title Zur neueren Kunsttheorie, collects his reflections, reviews, annotations, and notes on 18thcentury art theories.