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The article deals with the specific narrative aspect of the romantic Künstlernovellen about music. Narration-wise, these fictions are often built on two levels: the frame narrative, where the tale is told in a sociable environment, and the enshrined narrative, where an original and profoundly atypical piece is often composed or represented. This paper aims to give another meaning to this apparently counter-productive representation of creation through the study of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Sanctus. Rather than underline the tragic vanity of all productions of genius, in our opinion this literary device illustrates the aesthetic credo of Romanticism. According to the latter, art is an autonomous absolute which is independent from the milieu in which it appears, while at the same time, because of its very sublime and apparently detached nature, it possesses an increased power of effectiveness.