On the Beauteous-

 Notes toward an appreciation of Beauty -

Changes in Platitudes, Changes in Attitudes- Brian Keeler

Beauty, it is a vast subject, quite overwhelming in fact, with spiritual, practical, artistic and mundane aspects.  So the contemplation of beauty is certainly not restricted to artists but is essential and far reaching to all.   So with that caveat, I will consider some of the aspects of beauty that I have been thinking about recently and for a long time.

Above- a painting by the author, which is a visual essay on light, proportion, grace and beauty. It is inspired by a bronze figurative sculpture of the Three Graces by the 19th century French artist Carpeaux.

Art and Life- Beauty in the commonplace and ideals

As an artist, beauty and aesthetics have been inherent in all aspects of this career that I have been fortunate enough to pursue over the decades.  The beauty of light, form, character and arrangements both artistic and of nature are included.  My readings as of late have been rewarding and clarifying some of the elements of beauty along with bringing up some of the contradictions, anomalies and even transgressions or iconoclasms. In some instances we can broaden beauty from mere questions of taste. Some of us may recall that jocular ad for canned Starkist tuna from the 60's, that implored the cartoon tuna, Charley: "We are looking for tuna that tastes good, not with  tuna with good taste."  Ha, such was the levity of  advertising agencies on Madison Avenue.

Plotinus is certainly at the forefront, although I have just scratched the surface with this profound thinker's work.  Still, just an introductory look at his writings reveals an understanding of beauty with depth and insights into much more than just taste or aesthetics.  His vision truly connects us to a higher level with the divine and unsullied essences of life.  The human spirit and soul are part of the quest with Plotinus.  His book, The Enneads, translated by Stephen McKenna is the source used here.

And two wonderful and concise small volumes give us the contemporary nuts and bolts of beauty. These are, Beauty, A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton and "Aesthetics, A Very Short Introduction" by Bence Nanay.   They both offer inspiring and at times vexing considerations of how beauty is considered in contemporary culture.  The Plotinus writings offer the lucidity and vigor of a philosopher from the 3rd century a.d. in Rome.  So these are inherently more transcendent and spiritual. In fact, our regarding beauty with Plotinus as our guide brings in God. Plotinus' work suggests that Deity is inherent in our musing about beauty. And beauty and truth are aspects of the divine according to him. Who can argue with that?  The theological vision of beauty has been promoted by many others including St Thomas Aquinas.

Well, for starters, as a warning about coming to an etched-in-stone definition- beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, as it is said, and, therefore, beauty truly is subjective. There's no accounting for taste, is the adage to apply to those whose preferences seem to go against the grain. In our times we can even see high art's take as a combative, if not a transgressive act.   Affronts and flying in the face of tradition seem to be entrees into acceptance and validation in some quarters.  My intent here was not to codify a prescriptive list of what beauty is and to apply it to work and life.  But more to just get an overview of this wide topic.

Like love, beauty is perhaps an overtaxed term.  Its common usage and over-use veers toward undermining it and renders it rather inert. Hence, the subtitle here is "changes in platitudes and attitudes." Still. our concepts of beauty are temporal and always morphing- hence our cultural attitudes are always in flux if not subject to reinvention or revisionism. Scruton goes into platitudes with a list- one of which is: 

"There is no way you can argue me into a judgement that I have not made for myself, nor can I become an expert in beauty, simply by studying what others have said about beautiful objects and without experiencing and judging for myself."

OK, well considered and perhaps this could be applied to political discourse where there is hyperpolarized intention to convert the other side.  Still, I enjoy the written discourses of those, like Scruton's, that consider beauty. 

Aesthetic success is one criterion which Scruton mentions, which is to say how well a given work of art completes its goal.  I recall this idea from art school and it was invoked to grade a work, which is to say, we can see the intent, and then determine how well the artist accomplishes the goal. And obviously, not always do we hit the ideal. 

Then there is the aspect of separating the utility of an artwork from the aesthetic. We can appreciate the Venus de Milo in the Louvre without knowing the exact intent and usage of this female form. Perhaps she was a vehicle of war and aggression or political hegemony. We need not trouble ourselves with context necessarily to appreciate her beauty and the accomplishment of the sculptor.

One Man's Beauty is Another Man's Sacrilege

Yes it is complicated and even controversial- this process of definning beauty .  Widening our optic and appreciation is arguably one purpose and benefit of art.  When we visit museums or galleries, one of the benefits is coming away enriched, enlivened with new appreciation of life.  Yet when taken in edgy directions some of us may wonder about the relevance or even the worth of such expressions.  A good example is Marcel Duchamp's work of the early 20th century - the urinal taken out of context and mounted in a museum with the title, "Fountain."  It is universally regarded as art, but generally  not thought of as beautiful.  Therein lies the conundrum for our age.  The 1917 idea of Duchamp's nonetheless shows us how the everyday and mundane can be viewed with wonder.  

We think of this tenet of showing the commonplace and humble as aspects of art central to so many truly great works of art.  Rembrandt's portrayal of his plump wife Saskia in the nude in the guise of biblical figures like Bathesheba or Esther may go against the grain of accepted ideals of feminine beauty today.  She is certainly not Venus de Milo.  Yet we appreciate the depth and even compassion of Rembrandt's understanding.  Viewing the less-than-picturesque in a new way is part of genre painting from Henri to Hogarth or Vermeer and Luks. Whether it is the cacophony of an early 20th century American slum or the golden light of a Delft interior- we are brought to see the commonplace anew.

Above- a street scene in the Philadelphia suburb of Manayunk by the author. This. 30" x 30" oil on linen is an example of the genre scenes referenced above which take the commonplace as inspriation.

Further, in regards to taking the mundane and even sordid into a new appreciation is part of many forms of art. Who would consider Schindler's List a beautiful subject. The holocaust is a sordid stain on humanity. Yet, Anne Franks' diaries are part of our story that need to be told and shared.  There were drawings done in the concentration camps that are heartfelt records of suffering and depravity, yet honest and important expressions. We think of Goya's etchings, the horrors of war, as part of this as well.

Here's a quote from Scruton in regards to the above, as showing us and expressing the tragic and darker side of humanity. He is referring to T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland as representing ( in its narrative) a cultural soul-less desert. 

"It describes what is seedy, sordid with words so resonant with the opposite, so replete with the capacity to feel, to sympathize and to understand that life in its lowest forms is vindicated by our response to it."

Indeed, our humanity is revivified and ennobled by our experiencing works of Rembrandt and Thomas Mann and T.S. Eliot and many others. 

Objectivity and Order

A rulebook or code of beauty was suggested at the onset here - but the definition is a fool's errand.  It would be nice to have a formula of "Do this in this order" and  beauty is attained.  We have seen throughout history that in fact some of the most beautiful and memorable works of art are those that flaunt, think outside the box and even transgress the codes of beauty.  The columns of the parthenon break rules to accomplish beauty.  Manet's "Luncheon on the Grass" was an affront and radical challenge to the mores of 19th century France. The idea of tradition sustaining innovation is relevant here.  We need the structure and accomplishment of previous arts to build on, in order to make art relevant to our own lives.  Orthodoxy and structure are part of the mix here. Our need for structures is formed by academies and religions- yet, our inherent urge is to go beyond and make personal these forms.

The Spiritual in beauty and beauty in the spiritual

As mentioned earlier Plotinus is one of the commentators on beauty who offers a profound understanding that brings in deity and spirituality into the consideration of beauty.  There is a chapter on beauty at the beginning of the Enneads and later one on intellectual beauty.  The idea of our cerebral and intellectual musings as an aspect of beauty is an intriguing one.  The idea of beauty being in the realm of spirit and not a material quality seems to be one that is recurrent in his work.  Here's one quote from Plotinus:

But that thing we are pursuing is something different and that the beauty is not the concrete object is manifest from the beauty there is in matters of study, conduct and custom; briefly in soul and mind. And it is precisely here that the greater beauty lies, perceived wherever you look for wisdom in a man and delight in it. not wasting attention on the face. which may be hideous but passing all appearance by catching only the inner comliness , the truly personal, if you are still involved and cannot acknowledge beauty under such conditions, then looking to your own inner being you will find no beauty to delight you and it will be futile to seek the greater vision, for you will be questing through the ugly and impure."

Plotinus's writing, though far reaching, is quite convoluted and difficult to unpack.  In fact, those in a Plotinus' study group that have been hammering out his work for over 50 years still require intense pondering to really get at Plotinus' intent.  As an artist I have found it curious about Plotinus's reluctance to have his visage recorded in sculpture or drawing.  His rationale was why do it?  as this head and body show only a temporary visage. We can see that preference in the above quote that disparages the face or outer form.  Yet, we appreciate his reluctance to sit for an aritst as an example of non-coporeal ideas of being just temporarily embodied.

Plotoinus wades into the physical beauty concept and offers appreciation of the forms, yet warns elsewhere to reject all sensual appetites. What to do?  Scuton too wonders about Eros and erotic art as well as debasing the body and principles of embodiment of soul through pornography. Could be a quagmire of competing ideas and injunctions.

Here's a passage from Plotinus on this subject of embodied beauty:

What, then, is it that gives comeliness to material forms and draws the ear to the sweetness perceived in sounds, and what is the secret of the beauty there is in all that derives from soul?

Is there some One Principle from which all take their grace, or is there a beauty peculiar to the embodied and another for the bodiless? Finally one or many, what would a Principle be?

                            Are Beauty and Math Commensurate?

A lot of ink has been spilt over this aspect of beauty in the arts, life and the cosmos and, well, God too.  After all, music is structured on intervals, subdivisions - quarter notes etc. Pythagorus equating  life with number is no small part of the beauty and number ideas.  And painting is not exempt from the need to measure- with proportions, harmonies of duration and relationships all part of the mix.   Leonardo's famous drawing of the Vitruvian man that attempts to square the circle with the proportions of the human body is perhaps the most iconic example.

We need not go around with a yardstick, I think most would agree to make sure our visual compositions were Pythagoean.  Yet, we relate to the harmonies of proportions as being essential to art and music.

There is also the sacred geometry aspect. Who has not marveled at the beauty of unfolding mathematical patterns in a sunflower seed, a nautilus shell or cloud patterns of seeming order.

The philosopher Paul Brunton has plenty of apt observations in this regard.  Here is one passage from his notebook, Enlightened Mind, Divine Mind: 

"The Notion that the universe is laid out on an architectural plan holds some truth but more error. Its truth appears in the geometrical pattern of the World-Idea, its error in the separate building materials theoretically involved, For of Matter there is none."

Grace and Virtue as Beauty

The subject of beauty is wide open contemplation with many fine observers- poets, authors, composers and others all part of the contributions.  I will end with one quote from Emerson, who like Plotinus equates beauty with virtue and couples it with discipline:

"The presence of a higher, namely of the spiritual element is essential to its perfection. The high and divine beauty which can be loved without effeminacy, is that which is found in combination with human will, and never separate,  Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue, Every natural action is graceful.

We recall that Emerson, the American transcendentalist, and the painters of the Hudson River School were steeped in this tradition. When we view the landscapes of America in the 19th century, such as those canvases of Thomas Cole or Frederic Church, we recall this reverence for nature and perhaps invoking  the transcendent through light.