Il velo di Mignon

The paper aims to analyze the figure of Mignon, by examining Goethe’s aesthetic and scientific writings. Focusing on Goethe’s understanding of Bildung as a form which moves and transforms perpetually – as it is meant for example in the description of the Laocoön Group – the figure of Mignon appears essentially as pure movement or pure energy that cannot find a shell in which to take shape, materialize and manifest itself openly. If Goethe himself states in the final pages of Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship that art has not been able to “chain the spirit that flees”, the author will resort to the expedient of the voile to “veil” Mignon and “unveil” her true essence. Dancing and singing with her angelic voile, Mignon can finally be compared to a Warburgian Ninfa.