| What Is Artistic Beauty? Essay, Research Paper
Kelley Rubben
Dr. Marck L. Beggs, Director M.L.A. Program
Admissions Essay
January 6, 2001
What is Artistic Beauty?
From the beginning of time, men and women have scrutinized, categorized, and
compared components of their surroundings in an attempt to better understand their world. In
the Bible?s Genesis account, Adam, seemingly in appreciation of Eve?s uniqueness and beauty,
poetically proclaims her, ?bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman,
for she was taken out of man.?[Gen. 2:23 NIV] Much later, artists, writers, and philosophers have
sought to understand beauty, balance, and perfection — the sublime. Their struggle to define
perfection and to set standards of beauty was termed aesthetics or, ?the science of the beautiful,?
in 1753 by German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten. Baumgarten was considered
the first modern philosopher to approach the question of beauty systematically, introducing the
term aesthetics and defining the experience of beauty as the sensory recognition of perfection.
[Danto 1]. The works of his contemporary, Immanuel Kant, express the notion that beautiful
objects are without a specific purpose and that judgments of beauty are not expressions of mere
personal preference but, rather, universal. Similarly, Encarta defines aesthetics as:
A branch of philosophy concerned with the essence and perception of beauty and
ugliness, dealing with the question of whether such qualities are objectively present in
the things they appear to qualify, or whether they exist only in the mind of the individual;
hence, whether objects are perceived by a particular mode, the aesthetic mode, or
whether instead the objects have, in themselves, special aesthetic qualities. Philosophy
also asks if there is a difference between the beautiful and the sublime. [Danto 1]
However, even with a definition at hand, arriving at a consensus on precisely what constitutes
beauty and perfection is nearly impossible. Ultimately, beauty is ?in the eye of the beholder.?
For the sake of argument, in this discussion, beauty will be limited to the perception of color,
sound, form, and words and with the emotional responses to these elements as experienced
within works of art, literature, and music.djtsidffjpoidffjsaosafdsafsadf
In his discussion of what he calls ?dependent beauty,? Immanuel Kant implies that the
use of an ornamental or beautiful object in some way affects its aesthetic qualities. In some
situations, an object is a beautiful adornment, but in a different setting, that same object would
be viewed as inappropriate or even grotesque. In Critique of Judgment Kant differentiates:
Much that would be liked directly in intuition could be added to a building, if only the
building were not [meant] to be a church. A figure could be embellished with all sorts of
curlicues and light but regular lines, as the New Zealanders do with their tattoos, if only
it were not the figure of a human being. And this human being might have had much
more delicate features and a facial structure with a softer and more likable outline, if
only he were not [meant] to represent a man, let alone a warlike one. [Leddy 1 / Kant
1987]. [
Therefore, cultural norms set the parameters for what is accepted as beautiful, though the
boundaries are constantly expanded by new artistic expressions that push the limits of
acceptability within a society. These ?avant-garde? artistic creations frequently depict themes,
images, or subjects considered ?taboo? in a particular society. Exhibited and marketed as
artwork, the creations will either be rejected, or they will be accepted as modern art, thus
expanding the boundaries of what can be considered art. [Wilson, 2 / Parsons and Blocker].dd
In the world of physical art, such as sculpting and painting, traditional aesthetics of the
18th and 19th centuries proposed that artistic beauty was an imitation of nature. Yet, while the
works of realist, impressionist, and neoclassical painters like Jean Francois Millet, Claude
Monet, and Benjamin West who strove to capture lifelike detail in their works are
unquestionably beautiful, this exact mirroring of nature is not a requirement of beauty. Much art
(particularly modern art) fails to imitate anything, yet often the obscure creations beautifully
capture an intangible feeling or emotion. Viewers perceive the work as beautiful based on their
reaction to the form and colors which create a mood. Another example of how art can be
independent of nature exists in the fact that artistic beauty has the potential to accomplish
something that nature cannot. Art has the ability to capture ugliness and beauty simultaneously.
For example, an exquisite painting of a gruesome battle or of an ugly face is still beautiful.
[Danto 2]. If a painting is unpleasant or disturbing, is it still art? Can that art still be beautiful if it
upsets us? [Wilson, 1]. British statesman and writer Edmund Burke identified beauty with
delicacy and harmony. Yet, he equated the sublime with vastness, obscurity, and a capacity to
inspire terror. [?Burke, Edmund? 1]. Therefore, the aesthetic in art does not necessarily mimic the
beautiful in nature; it may, at times, beautifully portray the macabre. Famed philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche, whose works express the idea that all in life is basically tragic, expressed
the belief that artistic creations had the capacity to transform any experience into something of
beauty that could manipulate the horrors of life so that they could be contemplated with
enjoyment. [Danto 2]. Though individual tastes vary when defining what is beautiful, any work of
art that has the power to arouse strong emotion in the viewer can be said to be an aesthetic
masterpiece.
A similar idea can be found in the literary critiques of American author Edgar Allan Poe,
whose insightful literary critiques established fundamentals that helped American literature to
gain world recognition at a time when it was only just emerging. Poe outlines two criteria that
he believed must be present in order for a literary work to achieve greatness: a literary work
must have ?high literary value? and must focus on a single strong emotion to elicit an emotional
response from the reader. Poe identifies the strongest emotion as sorrow. To him, the most
sorrowful thing was the death of something beautiful, an idea which can be seen in his poems
?To Helen,? and “Annabelle Lee.? The persona in each poem expresses grief over the death of
his beautiful beloved. Even though styles of writing and subject matter have changed from the
middle ages to modern times, these two criteria appear to be key to the ?livability? of a literary
work. Those poems, novels, and short stories that have stood the test of time and are today
constitute the body of great literature have transcended time periods and trends because they
elicit an emotional response (pleasant or otherwise) and are of a high literary value.
Similarly, what constitutes ?greatness? and ?beauty? in music is highly subjective. If
physical beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then most assuredly, musical beauty is in the ear of
the listener. However, the music that has endured for hundreds of years and which constitutes a
body of musical masterpieces shares the key aesthetic criteria — the ability to elicit an emotional
response from the audience. The complex arrangement of sounds, and in some music, the
combination of meaningful lyrics in addition to musical sounds, creates a mood. Some music
expresses deep sorrowful melancholy like an Edgar Allan Poe poem. Other music rouses
enthusiasm like Frederick Remington sculpture. Music can inspire a listener and inflame him,
cause him to feel mournful, or lull him to sleep. In Republic, Plato ?went so far as to banish
some types of artists from his ideal society because he thought their work encouraged immorality
or portrayed base characters, and that certain musical compositions caused laziness or incited
people to immoderate actions.? [Danto 1] Though tastes in music vary perhaps even more so than
preferences in art and literature, whether a listener likes his music loud or soft, classic or
contemporary, alone or at a concert, listeners have one thing in common: they choose music that
holds meaning to them — that in some way speaks to their soul and elicits an emotion.
What is beautiful and great in art, literature, and music is the quality that enables these
works to endure. Great works of art do not necessarily fit into prescribed channels. They may or
may not imitate nature; they may not even depict something noble or ?pretty.? Some art is
highly personal, almost to a level of obscurity, while classical forms maintain the Greek ideal of
universality and impersonality. Certain artistic creations will serve no ?higher purpose? than the
pursuit of beauty. Other artistic creations will serve posterity by commemorating an historic
person or event; some art has the power to inspire change or to incite a revolution, forever
altering the course of history. What is art? British critic and semanticist I.A. Richards, in his
work Practical Criticism, argues that art is a language, asserting that there are two types of
language: the symbolic and the emotive. The second type, emotive language, expresses, evokes,
and excites feelings and attitudes. Richards regards art as an emotive language which gives
order and coherence to experience. [Danto 10]. If then, art is an emotive language, then artistic
beauty must therefore be art, literature, or music that elicits and excites emotions and, perhaps,
shapes attitudes. Artistic expression that endures to form a body of great art is that which
touches the emotions of its audience.
Danto, Arthur C., M.A., Ph.D., ?Aesthetics,? Microsoft? Encarta? Online Encyclopedia,
2000 ? 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation.
Leddy, Tom. ?Kant’s Aesthetics: Tattoos, Architecture, and Gender-Bending,?
American Society for Aesthetics / Aesthetics On-Line. .
“Romanticism (art),” Microsoft? Encarta? Online Encyclopedia, 2000
? 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation.
Wilson, Kay; Walkup, Nancy; McCarter, Bill. ?Aesthetics: Questioning the Nature of
Art,? North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts. (c)1995,1996,1997,1998,1999
Created: 30 November 1995; Updated, Fall 1999.
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