The True, The Good and The Beautiful
I have been sensitive in the last few weeks since my return from Italy about the topic of art and beauty. After walking in Rome, the Vatican and through small coastal towns, I came back to Montreal feeling a sincere lack of beauty in architecture.
This prompted a quest about the nature and purpose of art and it's place in my life. I came to the conclusion that the purpose of art is beauty. Like Plato said:
Beauty is a sign of another and higher order
In Christian theology, God is represented as the very nature of Truth, Goodness and Beauty. That in some way, anything that reflects those attributes is communicating the nature of God. I like that description of the ultimate reality. Whatever you believe about what or who God is, when we hear sublime music or come in contact with exquisite beauty in art, our soul sing. We cannot deny that experience. We are "lifted up" in a way that communicates that we can rise above our suffering and that life is worth living.
The youth feel this existential angst more than most people. No wonder suicide rates among youths aged 15-24 have tripled in the past half-century. In the last century we gave up on the idea of beauty in art, beauty in our neighborhood and our churches, I don't think it is a coincidence.
For my Christian friends who thinks that church architecture isn't important, consider this study that shows that "One in six young people are Christian as visits to church buildings inspire them to convert"...making architecture one of the most effective method of evangelization.
The youths are starving for beauty and one of the last public place left to come in contact with beauty is a cathedral or a church.
"Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder"
It is a chant we keep on repeating as if that if we repeat it again and again, it will make it more true. The idea behind this is that since different people have different taste, therefore all beauty is subjective.
Someone could look at a pile of trash and find "beauty" in it...some would say.
I disagree with this idea.
First, what people find genuinely beautiful doesn't vary as much as people pretend and secondly, imagine a grade 1 class where the students are learning multiplication tables. The range of answers will vary widely yet, that doesn't mean that there are all correct answers.
As people taste improve, so is someone appreciation of what constitutes beauty. Not everything is beautiful, some things are downright ugly. You can brainwash yourself into believing that the picture below is beautiful, but nobody in 200 years will flock like we do to Paris or Rome (Below is a Houston suburb)
Edits (added after a few conversations): In a sense, objective beauty is found in architecture, paintings and music that is not only appreciated today in a certain time in a certain place by someone...but across diverse people and across time...natural wonders fit that description perfectly. In 200 years, like I said in the comment, we will still be playing the 9th symphony of Beethoven and not "My Hump" by the Black Eye Peas.
Conclusion
Here is a very interesting video from philosopher Roger Scruton. It might give an interesting survey of the deliberate destruction of art and beauty in the last century...which has been, coincidently, the most murderous in world history.
As he says in the video:
Maybe people have lost faith in beauty because they have lost their faith in ideals.
I hope that our culture will turn this around and make Beauty as important as the pursuit of the Good and the True.
Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash
Photo by AC Almelor on Unsplash
Interesting thoughts man. I'd have to say overall I agree with you, but perhaps not fully. I think that subjectivity is the beauty and function of art, but I'm not certain that there is an absolute objectivity to art. You have some interesting thoughts on the relation of absolutism, and how they can relate to both art and ethics/morals. I haven't done much thinking about that relationship, so I'll have to take some time on it.
Anyways, I'm not sure if I agree on the 'eye of the beholder' part. I believe it plays a huge part at times. For instance, there are some songs that can bring me close to tears, and every time I listen to them I get transported by their beauty and I'm in a different world for a bit...but show those songs to say.. My wife or something, and it doesn't mean much to her. The experiences and personality traits that shape us to who we are today, influence how we see the world in unimaginable and undefinable ways.
While some things are more universally accepted as beautiful art, I'm not sure if it's fair to draw a line and tell someone that something they think is beautiful isn't, just because other people don't agree with them. And I think that's part of the beauty of art.. It's in a league of its own.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Objective art, I agree is not possible because there is an infinite number variables. Mostly my point is about the purpose of art being beauty and that beauty itself has something that stirs the soul upward rather than downward. For beauty to have an objective quality, there must be a silver lining between what constitutes beauty across time, space and even culture. This is why I compare Paris or Rome to a main street in a suburb of Houston...or why Chinese people play the 9th symphony of Beethoven.
I believe that people are naturally attracted by beauty(ei: a beach in Hawaii) and repelled by ugliness(ei: the local dumpster). The ultimate form of beauty, according to Christian Theology, is what reflect the Good and the True...which is why I think why some piece of art have transcended taste and culture through the centuries...by religious and unreligious people.
We will play John's Passion in 200 years...but we surely won't play something like "My Hump" from the Black Eye Peas.
Sorry for the late reply.
OK, I can agree more with what you said here, when you say that the purpose of art is to essentially be beautiful, even though that can take many forms. And I think I agree people are naturally more attracted to beautiful landscapes than dirty streets (I know I am, ha), but I'm a little hesitant still to say that certain things are really truly objectively beautiful.
I agree that the ultimate form of beauty is what reflects what is true and good. But not certain if you can boil it all down objectively.
I think some art is higher quality and much more accessible beautiful than other art, which is why they are "timeless". But I'm not entirely certain that someone from a vastly different culture would appreciate Beethoven, or a painting from the Renaissance period, etc.
But then again, gorgeous sunsets are beautiful, and who doesn't like them? I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm on the fence. I see where you're coming from, but personally I'm not ready to say that beauty is objective. I think.
I bought Roger Scruton's book after watching that video. It all comes down to the question of objectivity vs subjectivity. Is Good and Evil objective or subjective? Is Beauty objective or subjective? What's interesting is that some experiences shake our soul, in ways we can't really comprehend. Some music, some landscapes, some paintings, etc. Maybe there's an objectivity we can't yet grasp. It's superior to us, it's by design, that kind of design science couldn't yet describe (and even if it could describe, will never explain)
Beauty(aesthetic), Truth(Logic) and the Good(Morality/Ethics) have been in a fight about their objective nature. Empirically, I think it is clear that civilizations that goe down the path of relativity end up crumbling and imploding. When we call the ugly beautiful and when Evil becomes signs of virtues...we are in deep trouble.
We know that the Holocaust was so horrendous that no sane person would say that it was not objectively evil (meaning independent from people's opinions). As soon as we unknowledge that, we cannot escape it's logical opposite. If there is something ultimately evil, there must be an ultimate good.
Beauty is harder to defend when it comes to it's objectivity yet I think that we experience in our soul the difference between genuine beauty and ugliness. Which is why people still flock in masses to great paintings and architecture or towards Hawaii...and not towards the local dumpster.
I agree with you about beauty. I latched onto the fact you mentioned music as something touching the soul.
As it pertains to the kids today, the music is awful. Hip hop and some of the other genres are absolute death to the soul. Listening to the lyrics is bad enough...even without focusing upon them, they penetrate the psyche.
Compare that to classical music....how uplifting that music is. A great classical piece will touch your soul at the deepest level. Too bad the kids do not see that.
I love the picture of Houston...how does one see beauty in a bunch of signs that are advertising fast food places. Actually, it is rather ugly and symbolic of the corporatism that we are present locked in.
The almighty dollar (or whatever currency) is the most important thing today...a god if you will....peoples higher power.
Everything else seems secondary.
I completely agree with you, my friend, lately, let me not be a tolerant person, our society increasingly lose the real notion of beauty and the general understanding of the universe. You correctly noticed that it's not right to seek beauty in a pile of garbage, I will say even more, it is counter-indicative from the point of view of correct thinking about life values and customs. Only when we seek beauty in something great and sublime, we can find beauty within ourselves and the church with its centuries-old foundations and covenants can replace all false understandings of beauty! Thank you @cryptoctopus
الله يحفظك
Thank you, God keeps us all!
Very strong assertion here and I quite agree with you. Wonder why people dole out million of dollars to purchase art pieces? Beauty!.
This brings us to the point that what we consider as beauty is subjective. I might praise a picture for being beautiful, but it might not be beautiful to another person.
Now this next part is the part that draws my curiosity.
And it's been researched on right?
I wanted to outrightly say this is not true, but you know what? I'm gonna read and through the research since it's a little bit psychological and then I'll know how to accept this opinion.
Off to read more on it..
And oh!! Thanks for sharing this. We keep learning daily
and therefore that ugliness is also subjective. This idea is not so far from ideas that morality is also subjective and that genocide can be good and that charity can be bad depending on "our opinions". Very dangerous stuff.
There was a time that we built things that took many generations to complete, just because we appreciated back then how important beauty and symbolism is.
Beauty gives meaning and purpose to life.
I agree with this
But putting the lack of proper art as a possible cause of increase in suicides is an extremely long shot in my opinion.
We can find good art if we want too, in fact, I believe it is easier than ever to find good art today thanks to the internet.
Comparing Montreal with Rome is a little unfair haha, Rome is an historic place with incredible history, while Montreal is a normal modern city, that I am sure is not ugly at all and probably people in Montreal have better lives than people in Rome, but that when it comes to competing with Rome and with its classical looks, well there is no competition at all.
I am not sure if I agree with this.
For example, with churches, perhaps the lack of beauty in the designs is because the lack of funds.
And about neighborhoods I think that it also depends. There is ugly ones and pretty ones after all.
I don't think it's such a long shot. We are incredibly conditioned by out environments, and if everything around is essentially preaching ugliness, meaninglessness, and nihilism, that will definitely start to affect the psyche.
I visited Milan last week. There were a lot of historical places and all of them were so fascinating as you shared. Thanks for the impressive post.
The video looks like very interesting and including valuable information. I will watch it as soon as possible. I just wanted share with you this photo taken in Duomo.
@cryptoctopus,
I didn't watch the end video, but at one point I am disagree with you. Beauty and art, for me it's subjective! Trash can be a beautiful thing! Someone can say it's ugly, but as I said it has it's own beauty and that's why I said it's subjective!
Anyway Church has it's own art, once I told you I am not a Christian, but I like to visit Church in my area! Because, I like the architectural design of it and it has it's own beauty!
Whatever my eye capture, it gives positive or negative pulses to my brain and the brain takes those signals as Beauty or Ugly! For me everything has it's own art, as Plato said
Beauty is a sign of another and higher order!Cheers~
“Trash can be a beautiful thing”, would love to hear your deeper thoughts on this because it makes 0 sense in my head. Beauty affects people clearly on a deeper level in how people live their life. When you start to hear "trash can be a beautiful thing" that’s usually the downfall of a society in moral standards. What trash are we talking about here? Very curious.
People not only lost faith they ideals, they also lost faith in the state, nation, and society.
The cultural "beauty" is losing attention in a world surrounded by artificial distractions.
Great post. Beauty stays forever. For me, most profound beauty is in music or nature. Something where you can connect whit yourself. That "Houston" picture is not beautiful at all. My opinion is that people lost faith in beauty, because they lost faith in themselves and who they authentically are.
Owk this is entirely new to me. Like seriously? Does the church building really convert people . Wow!
I love all you said about beauty and infacylt you gave me a different perspective about beauty.
It is true that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder but like you said, something's are outrighlty beautiful and something are outrighlty ugly. We have things that everyone would look at and say it's beautiful and same goes to being ugly but I think this scenarios are seen in just rare occassions .
Beauty and art has been destroyed in our century and it's something one really needs to be wary about and Roger Scruton made some valid points about this in his video.
Great post. Did you know that everything we find beautiful it’s because of its mathematical proportions which are based of the Golden Section? Master artist would use it to plan out their compositions and it is also found all over nature.
Truly the beauty can easily steal the heart of a youth, I agree God is the reflection of goodness, truth, humanity, one who seeks these things seeks God, The beauty of architecture of church can influence certain people and they can convert there religion, but only a few, mostly those who don't believe in their own religion and are attracted towards beauty.
Really wonderful video my dear friend but your video is very long and i watch your video just few minuetes.Awesome video sir and download it
Beauty is one of those ideas that over the past 100 years or so has been slowly downgraded when it comes to considering the value of art. It’s not so long ago that people would have named it as one of the qualities that defined art. Many still do. But what they mean by beauty has become a shadow of its former self.
Art is a means to state an opinion or a feeling, or else to create a different view of the world, whether it be inspired by the work of other people or something invented that’s entirely new. Beauty is whatever aspect of that or anything else that makes an individual feel positive or grateful. Beauty alone is not art, but art can be made of, about or for beautiful things. Beauty can be found in a snowy mountain scene: art is the photograph of it shown to family, the oil interpretation of it hung in a gallery, or the music score recreating the scene in crotchets and quavers.
This very beautiful piece of art is my friend.............and nice video
Speaking of beauty, everyone is eager to see a beauty in life that he lives. Because according to to create a beauty it is very difficult. Not everyone who lives in this world has an artistic soul of beauty. Because the soul of art is very difficult to find, only the lucky ones who have the soul of that art. It seems those people are god's choice, so they have an edge about art. Therefore I am very salute with people who have the soul of art, because the soul of the art, has a very expensive price. Thanks for sharing
nice post
good job
i live your post
Italy is a country full of ancient architecture and statues reflecting gods and myths abd history so its no wonder you feel lack of architecture back in montreal . The beauty outside reflects a beauty inside. People are able to work better and more creatively in beautiful refreshing places that are a dessert for our mind and soul, ugly and dirty place or places with no beauty causes irration as i teen for me,so about the suicide,yes our environment and its beauty affects us. I totally agree with you that it’s wrong to say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” cause not every thing can be found beautiful just thinking like that. You sound like a very religious person which is a good quality and your search for beauty in everywhereand wanting it to be in the part you live and churches you have there is a sign that you are awake for the community too.all should think like this and create a world a beautiful place combining with nature. Thanks for posting @cryptoctopus
There is a kind of peace you get from VIEWING something or someone that is beautiful. It most cases a person is left speechless or even moved to tears.
I have never been to Paris but I love the beach so I browse images if beaches in the Caribbean Islands and I feel a lump in my throat and almost moved to tears. The water so blue and the coral reefs so visible. It is truly a sight to behold.
I tell myself, one day I shall experience it.
I wish people still built castles. It's amazing what the masons did back in old times though with the equipment they had. I wonder how many died building those huge churches. Hopefully very few died. They are pretty amazing works of art though. I think the craziest job would have been the ceiling painters. lol
For me, i still think beauty is in the eye of the beholder because what could be beautiful to you, may be ugly to another!
I agree with the statement you made ....that beautiful things always stay beautiful and ugly things always remains so....perspective changes person go person ....but the beauty remains for all the same to every individual....Although the beauty may change with the time say after a century ... It is the beauty of nature which makes people believe in God (sometimes called nature)
The right concept can be relative to one person, something that is right for one may be something wrong for another. According to the convention, it is wrong to pretend to lie by the simplest one; the other may find it appropriate to lie in some cases "to upset people." But "real" is net, does not show relativity; it is not open to the interpretation of the persons according to their own.
Beauty is a concept related to emotions with fine arts. A person looks at the picture, it is beautiful, but it can not say it is good. According to Kant, both are separate things. While beauty is about emotional things, good is a concept that is comprehended with reason. There is art in the place where your beauty is. Beauty indicates high aesthetic value. In simple terms: it is an admirable, acclaimed attribute. It has a sensory form. It is not based on thought, but on dilution and imagination. We prefer the beautiful one for sensory impression and cruising, not for a job.
Perhaps for "fact" we can say "the adjective used to indicate that something exists in the outside world". In this respect, it can be called "solar reality". Reality is an existing condition. The truth does not change while the true person can change to the person. It is the "true" object; "Right" is often the case. "Right" is the way in which the truth is viewed and interpreted by the person.
Yes, I agree that we have forgot our culture in an attempt to modernise ourselves.
Not everything that is new is beautiful , there's a certain charm to our old and ancient architecture. Not everything can be replaced
I thnk Beauty shouldn't be about changing yourself to achieve an ideal or be more socially acceptable. Real beauty, the interesting, truly pleasing kind,is about being comfortable in your own skin...
I joined Steemit today. Explored the topic of art and selected your post due to the simple but descriptive title and colorful stained glass church windows. I was looking for good examples of posts on the subject of art. I found one here. You did a nice job and I liked it for its own sake, i.e. not as merely as a good example.
I watched a few minutes of the video you shared. Now I'm going to turn on the smart TV and watch that video on our widescreen.
Wow! Your post touched my heart😭. In the first instance because my biggest goal is to know Italy, I feel that something of my is there, so much the connection that my name is Adriana for those who do not know my name comes from a woman of the Adriatic Sea who is specifically in Italy. Most of it, maybe it's just a simple concidence but I see it as something bigger and finally someone told me one day that if you want to look at the beautiful thing you see once, but if you want to see the real beauty look twice.
Beauty perishes in life, but it is immortal in art.
While I agree with most of the things you said in the post--namely that the purpose of art is beauty. God is beauty. Christian architecture rocks--I cant bring myself to agree to your last point.
In my opinion, beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. And nothing is objectively ugly. For instance that Houston picture is beautiful to me. I'm an African, I've seen and lived in some of the worst slums in the world. So it isnt farfetched that that pic of Houston suburb can be beautiful to me.
I guess its a question of subjectivity vs objectivity. For instance do my taste matter? Or should a universal taste be put into the foremost? IMO theres no "universal taste".
Bloom said that the greatest tool of a critic is not even objectivity, but the deepest sort of subjevtivity. I believe him.
P.S I'm defintely not talking about relativity/comparison in this case. I mean, when it comes to relativity, its a whole different ballgame.
Thanks for this post. I especially appreciate that you addressed the current cultural (shrill) insistence that beauty is entirely in the eye of the beholder. The subjectivity of beauty only goes so far, and our failure to acknowledge the universal nature of beauty (and its importance in feeding our souls) is a way of denying reality. Looking forward to watching the entire Scruton video. Also, since people read words so literally these days, "beauty" might need to be clarified as the manifestation of the good, not a literal reference to whether a person, for instance, is beautiful.
I totally agree with you @cryptoctopus, Your concept of beauty is very similar to what I have, and even I have found a certain objectivity that moves the soul and heart, in different artistic expressions, be it figurative art, music, and so on. I personally am not religious, but I thank religion for all the artistic beauty that it has created, and which has conditioned and excited us in our lives. Beautiful article, let's continue to create and share Beauty, and the world will be better.
I came to the conclusion that the purpose of art is beauty. Finally @crptoctopus has come to a conclusion. incredible, It is a very interesting series of sentences from @criptoctopus's experience that is shared with us. Thank you for sharing our knowledge with us
I'd disagree, to this and your trash point. I think God is within each of us and in everything, but only those who have the eyes to see will witness it. That's what the quote "Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder" means to me. Once we reach a certain level of consciousness, or rather return to our natural consciousness, we can see the God/beauty within everything, including Taco Bell. It doesn't mean that those things have a natural beauty though, since they have been created by people while at lower levels of consciousness.
Some of the art and architecture of those great cathedrals was obviously done by someone quite blessed with vision and purpose. I'd say their consciousness was one with God or near that.
These are personal views of course, the way I have seen and interpreted things, hopefully they are somewhat clear.
I think we are all beautiful within, we are made in the image of God, yet there are some very "ugly" people who have deluded themselves and covered this truth up.
I would like to say a thing or two about the issue of the church architecture. Most churches spend fortunes constructing the church bulding. One church in Africa spent over $300 000 constructing the church building. It shows the level of priority christians place on their place of worship. Many people condemned this with the basis that a reasonabke percentage of the members of that church are living below the poverty level but as you said, the grandiose of the church building contributes significantly to people being converted.^
What a thoughtful and very interesting peice written by @crtptoctopus .
Even if i know !any would wanna agree or ague that beauty should not ne what nost people should focus on, but rather inner beautu from that lady.
what woow me was this line downwards from here
" Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder"
It is a chant we keep on repeating as if that if we repeat it again and again, it will make it more true. The idea behind this is that since different people have different taste, therefore all beauty is subjective."
For i definately would show this piece of work to the love of me life.
Thanks once more @cryptoctopus as i look forward to more of ur interesting post
Every person should have sense of beauty in it self. Beauty is in the sky, garden, sunny day... We should enjoy in small things and appreciate them, the life is going to pass by, so enjoy every day like it is your last.
Not all beauty are beautiful. Ashes can also be turn into beauty. The power of beholder define what can be characterize as beautiful...
I like the flower in that video , it minister to my spirit in an unusual way that i cannot explain.
The purpose of art is beauty. God is beauty. Whao, I love these very much. I can imagine, coming back from Italy, being very sensitive about art. For sure. It just makes you complete. I see you like christian architecture (who said they didnt matter?) of course they do matter.
Art doesnt just imitate life, IMO, the best life is art. the best art is life.
This very beautiful piece of art is my friend. and continue to share this very beautiful artwork my friend @cryptoctopus
There is this bliss connected to ark work and there is feeling unexplainable when you listen to songs that connects with your soul. If only we open our eyes and pay attention to the beautiful things that God have kept in place for us
Awwww its an amazing art of a building.I hope you had a great time in Italy.Seeing it in your pictures i also wished to visit Italy :)
Art is the gift of GOD
Beauty is just for one second
At first you may think that Beauty is important,but when you see the actual side of a person then you realise that actually what matters is the behaviour and not the beauty .
I have suffered a lot Because I was with a beautiful girl for 2 years and I really thought her to be a good person who will stand by my side for all good and bad times . But reality showed something else .
That made me realise that Beauty is not important because a good person can always be made beautiful but a beautiful person may not always be good.
In short “Good people are always beautiful but beautiful people are not always good”.
The ultimate form of beauty reflects the Good and the True.
I have mentioned this in a comment before, not sure if it was on your post, but one of the reasons that religious buildings, especially roman buildings, are built with such a high ceiling, is because it makes you feel like there is something bigger out there. Think of looking at a massive mountain or a waterfall. You get a reassuring feeling that there is something bigger out there than you. I still believe that there is also a special "feeling" you get in addition to this, but this contributes.
English is not enough to comment on this issue.
but you drew attention to the perfect spot. I agree to statistics mentioned in the article.
extremely accurate.
Thank you for this beautiful post.
I love the way you describe church as a beauty, I would also add two other words Love & Faith. I’m watching your video just now.