In "Romantic" art, the content is conceived in such a way that it is sufficient enough in its expression in sensuous, visible form, yet also able to transcend into the realm of the sensuous and visible. "Classical" art is the embodiment of ideal perfection in beauty, whereas "Romantic" art embodies "beauty of inwardness", or "beauty of deep feeling". "Symbolic" art does not meet the ideals of beauty altogether, it falls short because there is no understanding of the nature of the divine and human spirit. The artistic forms produced are deficient, therefore, "because the conception of spirit that underlies it - conceptions that are contained above all in religion - are deficient", however, Hegel does see "Symbolic" art as the product of the highest level of artistry.
Hegel's statement of "Symbolic" art surrounds the art of many different cultures and civilizations, such as Greece and Egypt. This shows Hegel's understanding, and recongnization for non-Western art. However, not all forms of "Symbolic" art are in fact fully and correctly "Symbolic". The relation between these "Symbolic" art forms is that they all belong to the sphere as Hegel defines as "pre-art". (Hegel, 73) The sphere of "pre-art" consists of art that falls short of proper art in some manner. Hegel's account on "pre-art" does not entail every single body of "pre-art" there is, for example, he excludes prehistoric art, Buddhist art, and Chinese art. His main focus for the concept of "Symbolic art was to analyze the different kinds of art that are made necessary by the concept of art itself and the means necessary to shift from "pre-art" to proper art. Hegel defines proper art as the sensuous expression or manifestation of free spirit in a medium, such as, stone, color, or metal, that has been intentionally "shaped or worked" by human beings into the expression of freedom.