“The philosophy of art is a necessary goal for the philosopher, who beholds in this, like in a magical and symbolic mirror, the inner essence of their science.” One would be hard struck to express with more pathos the rare heights to which art and the philosophy of art soared in F. W. J. Schelling’s eyes. For sure: around 1800 something like a universal aesthetic syndrome, an aesthetic furor, reigned supreme. But Schelling stands out in the crowd because he gave art more credit than hardly any other philosophy has, even up to today. When viewed from within the broader context of what philosophy in general is supposed to achieve, the philosophy of art is, for Schelling, not a specialized discipline dealing with one branch of knowledge or sphere of activity separated from a greater whole. In its capacity as a “magical mirror,” art is the objective reflex of philosophy. What philosophy cognizes in intellectual intuition, or claims to cognize anyway, finds its confirmation in the mirror of art. It is through the work of art and the ingenious productivity of the artist that the utterances of philosophy are verified in terms of their truth-functional value. Art thereby becomes a matter of central importance—a “necessary goal” that the entire philosophical science aims at, as stated in the opening citation taken from his Lectures on the Method of Academic Studies, known in English as On University Studies, published in 1803. What is all the more surprising and stands in need of explanation is that Schelling’s aesthetic enthusiasm and the honor he bestowed upon art by elevating it to such a preeminent status only cover a comparatively short phase of his work.