Transcript of a Lecture by
Some technical difficulties have arisen and I am afraid we must postpone the slides until
Thursday. Instead of interrupting the showing of the pictures by theoretical interpretations,
then I will show them one after the other and will give the theoretical introduction now
Now I gave you last Tuesday a survey on the meaning of
arts. I want today to relate the artistic to the
organization of the relation of religion and
discover a realm of reality which otherwise is shut, and open up a level of the soul, of our personal
existence, which otherwise is covered and not open; and that this cannot be done in any other way
than just by artistic symbols. This was the main thesis, and in order to prove that thesis I went
with you through many arts, where it was always obvious that only the artistic form is able
to open up that which art can open up by its symbols.
What then is the difference between these kind of
First, their points of identity—I only need to repeat them: symbols are not
and die; symbols point beyond themselves; symbols open up levels of reality and of the soul;
symbols participate in the reality of that to which they point. This is true of
this is true of
all not beside others. If you call it “level,” then we must [say] it is the ultimate level,
but we had better call it a dimension and then say it is the dimension of