The Hidden Cause: "Beauty is the promise of Happiness"- Stendhal
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. But this is invoked to end, rather than initiate discussion.
We are often inarticulate when we try to communicate our love for the beautiful.
Hogarth, as the first formalist, tried to find the basis of beauty in Curves and the psychological aspect of change. We are entertained and stimulated by change. But change must be measured.
Thus the experience of Beauty is the mid-point between boredom and exhaustion.
He tried to place an emphasis on our confidence in the experience of Beauty and not be susceptible to corrupting influences.
"I don't want to know how it works, I just want to feel the effect." (Man, the echoes that these line reverberates in my memory and heart are heavy.) Our first impulse is to dwell in silence and to give ourselves over to it to Cavour and prolong the engagement.
We do not spoil our pleasure when we analyze the experience. Instead, it intensifies and deepens the enjoyment.
But this is flawed as he was proposing a fixed Rococo-ian ideal of Beauty.
Let us consider "Fitness", the adaptation of an object to the purposes for which it was intended.
Our enjoyment is governed by an understanding of what something is for. For example, a desk when seen in abstraction from its function looks quite odd.
The purpose reveals the "integrity" of the object- our sense of it as a coherent, complete and unified thing so that they all make sense together intellectually and visually.
A perfect fit between form and function then arises and this idea of beauty if grounded in reason and practicality.
But the notion of function is not precise. We cannot merely operate on the level of a minimal function. And when we do consider function widely, it loses its power to determine the form an object should have. Also, the ideal of Functionality presupposes that we always know in advance what we want something for.
Pythagoras championed the idea of Proportion. From music and octaves, he sought to pinpoint "rightness". This had deeper meanings as the structure of the soul (in appreciation of Beauty) was the same as the structure of the universe. Thus there is a morally valuable state of mind in which beauty, goodness and truth stand in close proximity.
Palladio then used Proportion and developed the Classical Architectural style.
But yet, we cannot simply abstract fine proportions from one thing and expect them to yield a beautiful template for making something else.
Next, we consider the "Law of the WHole" whereby it is the holistic character of something that can explain Beauty. We are receptive to the impression of the overall character of the object and there is not just one thing each element is doing and just one relationship because everything counts together.
Neglect of holism can mislead us when we fasten onto an element that was lovely only in a particular setting and mistakenly suppose that it would be just as nice anywhere.
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