ABSTRACT
The importance of Wilhelm Worringer's aesthetics of empathy for the painting of the Blauer Reiter (Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, etc.) is well known. In his 1908 publication Abstraction and Empathy, Worringer formulated a theoretical approach that allowed him to transfer empathy with its philosophical and psychological principles to painting. In doing so, he oriented himself to the writings of Theodor Lipps. The fact that Lipps's theory of empathy is based on Friedrich Schiller's aesthetics has not yet been noticed. Jacques Rancière draws attention to the fact that Schiller developed a concept in Briefe über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen that makes it possible to transfer mimesis, which is valid in the art tradition, to modernity as an imitation of nature. The polarity of poeisis and aisthesis, which traditionally belonged to mimesis, henceforth referred to the subject that had become independent through the French Revolution: it is reflection and sensuality from which the work of art now results. Within this dialectic relationship, Worringer devised a position that was acceptable for classical modern painting: based on the aesthetics of Schiller and Lipps, he developed a concept of empathy that was valid for painting at the time.
