Angelica Kauffmann Reads Goethe: Illustration and Symbolic Representation in the Göschen Edition

Abstract

This article discusses the use of illustrations -- and their relinquishment -- in the first edition of collected works by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Goethe's Schriften, 1786--90) and focuses on three illustrations by the pre-eminent eighteenth-century artist Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807), done in Rome. They form, I argue, real illustrations, not mere decor or images independent from the text.

The images in question are:

1. A scene from Goethe’s play Iphigenie auf Tauris

2. A scene from Goethe’s play Egmont

3. an allegorical portrait of Goethe/a poet with the muses of tragedy and comedy.

In his published descriptions in Italienische Reise Goethe recommends the first two as models for the reader. In the third one, I argue, Kauffmann represented herself as inspiring the writer; in a general sense it reflects the visual arts as inspiring poetry.

The three illustrations mark an important change in book illustrations in the eighteenth century. Goethe and his publisher Göschen turned away from illustrations manufactured in series for the purpose of decor and good sales to illustrations where the author took an active role in the selection process and worked with the artist towards his ideal of symbolic representation which he later regarded as unobtainable and favored editions without illustrations.