Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's "Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics," is greatly influenced by the German aesthetic tradition, that refers to a type of philosophy that opposes materialism. The same German aesthetic tradition can also be found in J.J Winckelmann's writings, such as "History of the Art of Antiquity", "Thoughts on the Imitation of the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks", and G.E Lessing's "Laocöon". Hegel, in particular, was strongly influenced by Winckelmann and his own thesis of "the end of art". His philosophy of art takes account of the beauty in art, the historical development of art, and individual forms of art, such as, architecture, painting, literature, sculpture, poetry, and music.
There are three forms of art, or "three forms of the beautiful", (Hegel, 68) that is necessary to form the idea of art itself, as Hegel believes. The development of art from one form to the other is what Hegel defines as the history of art. He admits that art can both fall short of and exceed expectations of ideal beauty. When art falls short of the ideal expectations then that is the result of "Symbolic" art, and when it exceeds such expectations of ideal beauty, then it takes the form of "Romantic" art. "Classical" art is the form of art that is characterized as the works of ideal beauty. (Hegel, 68).
The production of these three forms of art is a changing correlation between the "content" of art, the idea as a spirit, and its means of presentation. The changes in this correlation can be determined by the manner in which the art is conceived. In "Symbolic" art the content is formed abstractly, it is not able to demonstrate itself sufficiently enough in a sensuous, visible form, in contrast, "Classical" art is conceived in the manner that is able to find utter perfection in expression and in sensuous, visible form.