ABSTRACT
As a preliminary to a closer scrutiny Walter Benjamin’s analysis of the baroque from the vantage point of the problematic character of contemporary art, it will be helpful to take a quick look at the distinction between symbolism and allegory established by romantic aesthetics. This will reveal that their position was here much less clearly defined than that of thinkers in the crises that preceded or followed them. F. W. J Schelling, in his aesthetics, organizes the history of art according to the principle that classical art was an age of symbolism, while Christianity was dominated by allegory. The first claim is based on the tradition established by Winckelmann, Lessing, and Goethe; the second is intended to provide a historical underpinning for a specifically romantic art. The real theoreticians of the crisis tendencies of allegory in romanticism were Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis.
