Text und Blick als Formen der Aneignung und Vermittlung individueller Erfahrung. Eine Sizilienreise im Jahre 1804.

This paper tries to reconstruct the very famous travel to Sicily of Friedrich Schinkel during 1804. He travelled together with other three artists and each of them wrote a different report of the Sicilian experience. Although Schinkel’s travel report has been already studied and published, it was never put in connection with those of his travelling companions. The present study tries to connect these four reports, particularly focussing on the excursion they made together climbing on the highest part of the Volcano Aetna. The comparison between the four different texts gives today the possibility to analyse the differences of the scopic regime, and most important of the gaze, i.e. of the way their personal imagination was put at stake when trying to reproduce in words the density of a personal experience. The article is part of a very beautiful and rich book published in honour of Prof. Gerhard Rupp (Rhur- Universität Bochum-Germany).Four German travellers of the time of Goethe meet in Naples and decide to face the great adventure of a travel through Sicily together. The famous architect Friedrich Schinkel, the writer Philipp Joseph von Rehfues, the painter and writer Carl Gotthard Graß and the architect Johann Gottfried Steinmeyer, report of their great experience in different texts, which have been partially published and never been put in connection until now. The Sicilian landscape, with its peculiar nature, the culture and people of the island, are a common experience of the fellow travellers but their reports, reveal totally different perspectives and opinions. Although sharing the difficulties of climbing on the highest part of the Volcano Aetna their reports reveal deep differences in their gaze and in the creative power of their imagination. In this study the descriptions are analysed from a cultural and anthropological point of view trying to point out the main differences and similarities. But most important, the study reveals the personal gaze of each artist put in front of a so called “sublime experience”. This study intends to fill a gap in the history of the travel to Sicily and to offer a new perspective on the artistic experience made by Schinkel in Sicily.

Quattro viaggiatori contemporanei di Goethe, Friedrich Schinkel,Philipp Joseph von Rehfues, Carl Gotthard Graß e Johann Gottfried Steinmeyer che insieme intraprendono il viaggio in Sicilia e osservano il paesaggio da quattro prospettive diverse. L'esperienza sulla cima dell'Etna segna un momento di grande partecipazione e viene riportata da tutti e quattro nei loro differenti resoconti di viaggio. L'analisi di questi testi a confronto permette di individuare differenze e similitudini nella percezione individuale e di ipotizzare l'esistenza di modalità creative dell'immaginazione che sovrintendono l'esperienza personale e permeano quella collettiva trasposta nel testo.