A Discussion Of Beauty
Beauty is widely defined as a subjective feature of aesthetic objects, which makes these objects aesthetically pleasing to see. Such objects may include sunsets, landscapes, human faces and works of fine art. Beauty, along with beauty, is the most significant theme of aesthetics, among the major branches of aesthetic philosophy. Thus, beauty and art are inseparable, regardless of what area of aesthetic appreciation they come from.
Aesthetic appreciation of beauty has a complex cultural background. It has evolved through time, taking the form of various art movements, such as representationalism, colorfield painting, formalism, monochromaticism, and abstract art. In modern times, the term ‘art’ is often used in its strictest sense to refer to any work of visual art that has an aesthetic quality and is considered to be beautiful. Thus, all works of art are theoretically Art, though aesthetics differ tremendously between different cultures. The word beauty therefore, has a wide variety of possible meanings.
In order to simplify things, we may divide beauty into two general concepts: the aesthetic idea. The aesthetic concept suggests that beauty is the view or concept of something being beautiful, while the aesthetic idea suggests that beauty is the actual object or situation that possesses beauty. The idea of beauty may also be referred to as the quality of appreciation or affectivity. This concept can be combined with the concept of proportion, since a proportion has both visual and physiological elements.
The word ‘beauty’ thus denotes not only the aesthetic quality but also the visual effect that a work of art may have on the viewer. Thus, the aesthetic quality of a painting may be said to be a beauty, just as the bodily beauty of a beautiful model would be called beauty. Beauty, in this broad sense, refers to both the inner quality of beauty and its outward manifestation. This aspect of beauty is perhaps one of the most important characteristics that art seeks to portray, since beauty is ultimately relative. The art world therefore seeks to create art that inspires emotions rather than mere aesthetics.
However, this is not to suggest that there is no aesthetic quality in objects. Beauty here refers to a certain quality of an object that makes it appealing, and which makes it a more pleasant experience to be in contact with. This quality is a key component of what is known as beauty, since beauty is also seen as the aim or goal of art. Thus, an object’s beauty might be defined according to how it affects its beholder.
So, when we speak of beauty, we do not intend to restrict the term to merely the appearance of an object. We conceive of beauty as having many different levels and aspects, each contributing to the overall beauty of a given object. It is this aspect of beauty that makes the concept of beauty so very vague and open to interpretation. In fact, many philosophers have argued that a definition of beauty itself should not exist, since beauty is a concept that is relative to culture and time. Furthermore, some have pointed out that beauty only becomes a concrete concept after it has been defined by other concepts. It thus becomes dependent upon the observer to decide what it is that he sees as beautiful.
