Originally published in 1766, Lessing's seminal tract is a turning point in the study of Western art. In this essay on the origins, forms, and influences of painting and poetry, Lessing helped frame modern conceptions of the artistic medium, and founded our modernist assumptions of the uniqueness of the individual arts. Republication of the Boston, 1898 edition.
The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater Pater's graceful essays discuss the achievements of Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and other artists. The book concludes with an uncompromising advocacy of hedonism, urging readers to experience life as fully as possible.
On the Aesthetic Education of Man by Friedrich Schiller, Reginald Snell A classic of 18th-century thought, Schiller's treatise defines the relationship between beauty and art. His proposal of art as fundamental to the development of society and the individual remains an influential concept.
