L’estètica de Francesc Mirabent : anacronia i anticipació

This article discusses the aesthetic theory of Francesc Mirabent, a peculiar Catalan intellectual. This topic is treated from the consideration of two perspectives that allow us to place into historical context Mirabent’s main text, De la bellesa. Iniciació a l’estètica, disciplina filosòfica (On beauty. Initiation to Aesthetics, philosophical discipline). On the one hand, is the work’s clear anachronism and, on the other, its anticipatory character with respect to contemporary aesthetics. The first point is mainly due to a rejection of Hegel’s aesthetics that estranges Mirabent’s texts from a convenient understanding of the art of his time. However, and in a certain tension with this question, the reflections of this Catalan philosopher have a surprising contemporary dimension, which makes his texts worthy of being recuperated today for two reasons: his understanding of aesthetic experience and his vindication of the aesthetics of nature.