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PREFACEThose who have labored through these essays in their original language are quite familiar with their problematic nature — even to a native German reader. Their difficulty rests, first, in their degree of philosophical abstraction (Vischer, Fiedler, Wolfflin, and Hildebrand) and, second, in the attempts of various authors (Vischer and Wolfflin, in particular) to introduce new terminology into artistic discussion or to adapt terms from other disciplines such as physiology. Haunting the translation of these works on another level is the fact that certain crucial German words (such as Vorstellung and its relentless conceptual permutations) simply have no English equivalent and in fact have an ambiguous philological history in German. Hence, the translator is often forced to choose between consistency and a more exacting demand to fit or interpret such words within their changing context. If there has been a single strategy guiding this translation, it has been to follow the second course and attack each of these texts within its specific philosophical context. Initial results were not always successful. With Robert Vischer’s essay, for instance, our first approach was to treat his various logical variations on the German noun Fuhlung (feeling) in a very literal sense: thus Einfuhlung became “in-feeling,” Ausfuhlung became “out-feeling,” Zusammenfuhlung became “together-feeling.” When this approach produced a very accurate but at the same time altogether unreadable English version, the experiment was dropped. With the assistance of David Britt we then sought out, as the English language seems to demand, more vivid alternatives. In addition to Britt’s invaluable counsel, the manuscript editor — Benedicte Gilman — applied her considerable linguistic talents to both the German and English versions, once again greatly enhancing the result. The successful moments of the final text thus owe much to the efforts of these two individuals. The translation of Conrad Fiedler’s essay was adapted from an English version carried out by Carolyn Reading Hammer and others in 1954. We thank her for allowing us to assimilate her carefully crafted work into our own. Two other English translations have been consulted. In 1907 Max Meyer and Robert Morris Ogden published a translation of the third edition of Hildebrand’s text. Extensive modifications and additions— “with the author’s cooperation” — were made to the German text, including the addition of a series of diagrams, thus defining the translation as a historical document in itself. Stanford Anderson was kind enough to bring to our attention a translation of Wolfflin’s dissertation undertaken some years ago by two graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Florian von Buttlar and Kenneth Kaiser. As we started work on Wolfflin, we also met with a particularly gratifying discovery: the author’s personal copy of his dissertation (bound in black leather) was found in the Special Collections of the Getty Center for the History ofArt and the Humanities. Inside were Wolfflin’s handwritten annotations and emendations, which we have here placed in the margin of the translation. These notations date from around the time the dissertation was privately printed, in 1886, although it is possible that some notes were added near the end of the century when Wolfflin considered reworking and publishing his dissertation. The small, shorthand annotations in an old German script were, with great difficulty, transcribed by Wolfgang Herrmann and Harald Weilnbock, to whom we are much indebted. We also thank Dr. Herrmann for reading the introduction and making various suggestions for its improvement. We are especially appreciative of the work of Julia Bloomfield, Lynne Kostman, and Tyson Gaskill of the Center’s Publication Programs. A special thanks also to Irene Qualters and Helga Wilderotter-Ikonomou.— H.F.M. and E.I.
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