By analyzing the difference between classical sculpture and poetry, laocoon demonstrated the boundary between plastic arts and poetry, that is, the boundary between space art and time art, and concluded that painting is more suitable for expressing beauty.
Lessing criticized the classical drama theory in Hamburg Drama Review, and founded the civic drama theory on the basis of Aristotle's Poetics. Civic drama contains both tragedy and comedy, which is produced by imitating people's feelings of sadness and joy.
Lessing believes that the main function of tragedy is to purify the audience's emotions through pity and fear, reaching a moderate level; The main function of comedy is to cultivate "the ability to find funny things" through laughter. In the style of drama performance, he advocates combining the passion of poetry with the expressive force of painting beauty; The mission of drama is to describe nature, reflect the real purpose, produce educational effect and improve the moral level of the audience.
As an enlightenment thinker, Lessing criticized the hypocritical court style and "pious" feelings, and replaced the classicism that had fallen into a state of death and decline with humanitarianism and romanticism. Advocate the perfect combination of genius and artistic creation, and oppose the inherent mode limitation in artistic creation.
Lessing is at the turning point from classicism to romanticism, pushing the Enlightenment to a climax. His aesthetic thought indicates the budding and vigorous development of the upcoming romantic aesthetics.