What a conception of art must those theorists have who exclude portraits from the proper province of the fine arts! It is exactly as if we denied that to be poetry in which the poet celebrates the woman he really loves. Portraiture is the basis and the touchstone of historic painting.
August Wilhelm von SchlegelThat which exists in nature is a something purely individual and particular. Art, on the contrary, is essentially destined to manifest the general.
August Wilhelm von SchlegelOur mind has its own ideal time, which is no other but the consciousness of the progressive development of our beings.
August Wilhelm von Schlegel