Aesthetic spirit
An esthete is a person who is enthusiastic about the fine arts and less about everyday things. The term is also used slightly disparagingly .
Pierer's Universal-Lexikon writes in the 4th edition (1857–1865): “ Schöngeist (French: Bel esprit ) is not both the one who has an easily excitable receptivity for the beautiful and a properly formed taste , but rather the one who who, as opposed to serious and difficult erudition, is preoccupied with so-called fine literature and especially cultivates the lighter genres of it productively. As a rule, the word is attached to the secondary concept of the superficial and the unfathomable; at least no one names Shakespeare , Goethe and Schiller Schöngeister because they were great poets. The expression beautiful soul , to denote a moral individuality characterized by benevolence, kindness, patience, mild religiosity, has become particularly common through Goethe's confession of a beautiful soul in his Wilhelm Meister . "
In the small German-Latin concise dictionary by Karl Ernst Georges , Latin translations are given: “ Schöngeist , elegantiorum litterarum amans or studiosus (a friend of the beautiful sciences). - bonarum or elegantiorum artium scriptor (a maker of aesthetic writings). - qui in arte poëtica studet ( devoted to poetry). "
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schöngeist . In: Duden online . Retrieved October 16, 2011.
- ^ Encyclopedia entry on "Schöngeist" in: Pierer's Universal-Lexikon, Volume 15. Altenburg 1862, p. 384.
- ^ Karl Ernst Georges: Small German-Latin concise dictionary. Hanover and Leipzig 1910, 7th edition, Sp. 2061.
