Late nineteenth-century German philosophers used the word Einfühlung, later translated as empathy, when discussing aesthetics. One of the earliest appearances of the word was in 1846. Philosopher Robert Vischer used Einfühlung to discuss the pleasure we experience when we contemplate a work of art. The word represented an attempt to describe our ability to get ‘inside’ a work of beauty by, for example, projecting ourselves and our feelings ‘into’ a painting, a sculpture, a piece of music, even the beauty of nature itself.
‘For the romantic,’ comments Stueber, ‘nature is properly understood only if it is seen as an outward symbol of some inner spiritual reality.’ As the work of art or the beauty of nature resonates with us, the feelings generated are projected into, and then felt to be a quality of, that work of art, that glorious nature.
If we can ‘feel our way into’ a work of art in an act of empathy, our understanding increases and our appreciation deepens. With particularly powerful works of art, we feel ourselves reacting both viscerally and emotionally. As our bodies resonate with the flow of the paint, the pain of a face, the strength of a buttress, the flight of a spire, our feelings vibrate in tune with the emotions of the work we are contemplating. We have an aesthetic experience. We are moved in our contemplation of a sensuous object.
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Empathy not only entails knowing what a person is feeling and feeling what a person is feeling, but also communicating, perhaps with compassion, the recognition and understanding of the other’s emotional experience.
by David Howe
Late nineteenth-century German philosophers used the word Einfühlung, later translated as empathy, when discussing aesthetics. One of the earliest appearances of the word of the word was in 1846. Philosopher Robert Vischer used Einfühlung to discuss the pleasure we experience when we contemplate a work of art (e.g. Vischer 1873/1994). The word represented an attempt to describe our ability to get ‘inside’ a work of beauty by, for example, projecting ourselves and our feelings ‘into’ a painting, a sculpture, a piece of music, even the beauty of nature itself.
‘For the romantic,’ comments Stueber (2006: 7), ‘nature is properly understood only if it is seen as an outward symbol of some inner spiritual reality.’ As the work of art or the beauty of nature resonates with us, the feelings generated are projected into, and then felt to be a quality of, that work of art, that glorious nature.
If we can ‘feel our way into’ a work of art in an act of empathy, our understanding increases and our appreciation deepens. With particularly powerful works of art, we feel ourselves reacting both viscerally and emotionally (Freedberg and Gallese 2007). As our bodies resonate with the flow of the paint, the pain of a face, the strength of a buttress, the flight of a spire, our feelings vibrate in tune with the emotions of the work we are contemplating. We have an aesthetic experience. We are moved in our contemplation of a sensuous object.