The Expression of the Divine in Plant Sculpture (according to Hegel’s Lectures on Fine Art and his Phenomenology of Spirit)

In the “phenomenology of the spirit”, there is evidence of absolute Identify as divine order. For Hegel, the divine order has a rational essence; therefore, the infinite divine order must be present in a finite being in order for the spirit to realize itself in the world. This movement of the spirit appears in “natural religion” and in parallel in symbolic art. “Plant Sculptures” are the first embodied form of the divine order. This primitive form is first shown as simple “columns” on which the least “work” has been done. These columns are mainly architectural components. Independent plant Sculptures are rarely found, because at this step the spirit is not free and its knowledge of itself is limited to the knowledge of plants. There are innocent in “plants religion” who lost with the onset of animal life and the resulting struggle and dynamism. With the end of natural religion and symbolic art, plant Sculpture continue to be repeal “Aufhebung” form in religions and the art of later periods. Plant religion is the beginning of the expression of the divine commandment embodied in religions.