The work deals with the problems of developing artistic consciousness. The main principle of the analysis which provides with propriety of aesthetic generalization is the principle of historism. Such approach enables us to evade speculative schemes, scholastic and theoretical reasonings. In this sense generalizations make an integral part of the developed artistic process. The creation of romanticists which is the subsequent stage of developing artistic consciousness, not only formulates principally new views on art, but develops special language of theoretical view enriched with new notions and categories. Romanticism, as a unity of experiences of Renaissance and baroque, realized the idea of a person's universality in its artistic creation and in the theory of art. Aesthetics of romanticists is the aesthetics of human freedom. According to the romanticists, the truly significant and human occurs not outside of us, but in our inner life. Only imaginary liberated person rises above himself, has a feeling of real existence, dignity. The theory of irony of romanticists, specifically that of Schlegel and the achievements of romanticists in the psychological enrichment of artistic language are analysed of this work. The idea of costprice of art advanced to the foreground. Proceeding only from the principle, art was able to realize itself as a unique phenomenon. Romantic conceptions of potentials of nature and art which had great influence on the German classical aesthetics.