Estetyka i Krytyka 39 (4/2015) ARTICLE PAULINA TENDERA * (JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY) ASSOCIATIONS OF THE HEGELIAN PHILOSOPHY OF ART WITH THE TRADITION OF THE METAPHYSICS OF LIGHT ABSTRACT In this article I would like to present three main areas of my interest in the aesthetics of Georg F. W. Hegel which are associated, directly or indirectly, with the philosophical tradition of the metaphysics of light. First, I will introduce my interpretation of the con- cept, used by Hegel, of luminosity in art (here I present my own understanding of this phenomenon, as I refer it to all of the three types of art we can speak of within the framework of Lectures on Aesthetics; 1 meanwhile, the traditional approach has been to apply this concept exclusively to romantic art, which, while correct, is only justified by the examination of art as a whole). Thus I propose here to examine the phenomenon of the luminosity of truth in symbolic, classical and romantic art. Next, I will present an understanding of the aesthetic experience of romantic works of art, an understanding which emerges from the concept of a work as a physical object of luminous truth 2 and is 1 A schema of the luminosity of truth in works of art after the so-called end of art would have to be presented as a separate issue, because ‒ although Hegel himself wrote about this phenomenon ‒ it would have to account for specific phenomena of the art world (and there- fore work that Hegel never saw) and to modernise Hegel’s language in regard to such phe- nomena and objects, enriching it on the example of the criticism of C. Danto or G. Dickie. 2 I maintain this understanding of a work of art (namely, as philosophical and spiritual content mediated through material things) equally in the areas of symbolic, classical and romantic art. This justification addresses exclusively painting in the romantic sphere. While I agree that romanticism is also expressed in poetry and music, I believe that the ideals of romantic art emerged in painting, and that poetry and music are very late forms of romantic expression which actually hint at the approaching end of art. * Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland e-mail: paulina.tendera@gmail.com