[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eric_b', 'P')en: Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, your question is moot.

[PenultimateManStanding]

[PenultimateManStanding]

Beauty with a touch of the sublime:

[PenultimateManStanding]

Beauty has even found it's way into Modernism (beauty with tension, as though the artist was fearful that it would slip away):

[PenultimateManStanding]

What I'm saying, eric, is that beauty is one of the categories of aesthetics. It isn't the only one. Even though it can't neccessarily be objectively pinned down, it is possible to distinguish it from other kinds of aesthetic goals and experiences. The beauty of Raphael's Madonnas is more truly realized than the beauty of an artist like Cezanne who painted the last example. But to me, Cezanne's beauty is more profound, precisely because of it's tenuous hold of the goal. The modern, industrial world is extremely ugly. All the more reason why Cezanne's achievement, which came after a lifetime of struggle to get the serenity, strength, and poise to attain it, is so heroic. The saddest thing about the Modern Art movement was that it claimed Cezanne as it's inspirational godfather after the great 1904 Exhibition in Paris so greatly impressed everbody, and then proceeded to emulate all that was worst in Cezanne's art, and ignored the true beauty in it. It could be that the spiritual effort inherent in his work did not appeal to the crass young painters who went on to create the art of the 20th century in their quest for fame and glory. Or it could be that they were just insensitive to it, and only picked up on the quirky aspects (which led directly to Cubism, BTW) which they could see.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'A')esthetic beauty agrees more with serenity, calmness, poise, and the lack of base emotions.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Doly', ' ')Romantic beauty (wild, tense and exotic) is no less beautiful, and quite a bit more interesting.