Empathy in art: past and present

At the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, scholars began to include the notion of empathy in their reflections on art; such a perspective was aimed at revaluing basic aesthetic issues. The article summarizes the core principles of the concept of empathy employed in the field of fine arts, and examines its use in the theories of such scholars as Robert Vischer, Theodor Lipps, Heinrich Wölfflin and Wilhelm Worringer. This will be followed by a brief consideration of the reasons why this idea was rejected by the researchers on art in the second half of the 20^th century. Against this background, my article will pose the question regarding a return to the concept of empathy in the reflection on the visual arts in this century. Its symptoms have been pointed out by some Anglophone authors (such as Juliet Koss). One should, however, note the differences in the new approach. The former biophysiological background has been replaced with references to contemporary research on brain functioning. Instead of concentrating on the expressive character of architecture, scholars explore e.g. an empathetic response to human images (David Freedberg) or to landscapes and still lifes (Michael Fried).