The article examines the views of the Austrian art historian Hans
Sedlmayr on the nature of art. The priority in his writings belongs to
the concept of the “middle” (“Mitte”). Sedlmayr regards the middle
as what forms the integrity, individuality and unity of a work of art. In
his interpretation of the “middle object” Sedlmayr follows the tradition
that goes back to the philosophy of Aristotle through Hegel and neo-
Thomist scholasticism. Aristotle regards the “middle” as a unique
living center, in which the inner is identical with the external, the
general with the specifi c, the subjective with the objective, denotation
with connotation.
Keywords: work of art, integrity, visibility, middle object, identity.
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