DEFINING BEAUTY IN ART: FIVE PROVISI AND SIX CRITERIA SINE QUA NON
Etudes balkaniques (Sofia) 2022 N 1
Alexandra FOL
Doctor of Music
Canada
Abstract: The author proposes and defends the following five provisi that help define beauty in art: 1) Beauty is not essential for an artwork to be an artwork; 2) Beauty and aesthetics are not identical notions; 3) Taste does not define beauty; 4) Morality is immaterial to beauty; 5) The ontology of an artwork is distinct from a person’s emotional response to it. Fol follows her preamble by defining and defending six criteria that, when taken as an ensemble, establish a standard for beauty in an artwork on a sliding scale: 1) Containing at least five art properties and five craft properties from a provided list; 2) Directed intentionality vs. randomness of action(s); 3) Engaged experience that exceeds mere satisfaction of experience; 4) Recognizable, not necessarily definable patterns of manufacture: aka, style; 5) Potential for symbolic interpretation vs nothing but face value; 6) Nested levels of intent.
Keywords: Beauty in an artwork, conditions for beauty, definition of beauty, ontology of beauty, philosophy of beauty, aesthetics