Aesthetics, Beauty and Style

AESTHETICS

Definitions:

1) aesthetics is “feelings a

roused in us by sensory experiences,” and “our
responses to the natural or artificial world.”

2) in philosophy/psychology:  aesthetics is the study of what causes
certain responses to sensory experiences, and how those responses take
place.

3) traditionally:  aesthetics is the effect of beauty or ugliness on the
mind/feelings.

BEAUTY—what is it?  where is it?  Discussion and analysis of visual images that might or might not have beauty.

--Bernini, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, 1645-52;  Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1484-86

            --Girodet, The Sleep of Endymion, 1798;  Greek vase, Eos and Memnon, 400s BC

            --Vermeer, Girl in the Red Hat, 1666;  Velasquez, Mars the God of War, 1640

            --Girodet, The Deluge, 1798;  De Loutherbourg, Avalanche in the Alps, 1803—concepts of the sublime—works of art depicting experiences that are powerful & overwhelming—or places or things that are vast, huge, impossibly small:  in other words, the extreme in art

            --Canova, Cupid & Psyche, 1790;  Munch, The Kiss, 1890

            --Kathleen Holder, Untitled, 1990s

            --Bower bird, Avenue Bower, 1990s;  Goldsworthy, Bamboo Spires, 1987

            --Piero, Madonna del Parto, 1400s;  Marc Quinn, Allison Lapper Pregnant, 2005

            --Piéta images by various artists

            --Grunewald, Crucifixion, 1500s;  Serrano, Untitled, 1980s

STYLISTIC VARIATIONS IN ART—REALISM TO NONREPRESENTATIONAL

Realism—the attempt to depict objects as they look in actual, visible reality.

--Velasquez, Water Carrier of Seville, 1640;  Jan de Heem, Flowers with Skull and
Crucifix, 1650

illusionism—also called “trompe-l’oeil”—extreme realism used to “fool the eye” into
thinking that what is represented is really there:

--Fra Andrea Pozzo, The Glorification of St. Ignatius, 1690s
--Cornelius Gijsbrechts, Trompe l’Oeil, 1650

naturalism—a depiction that resembles its real-world inspiration, but without the same
exactness as realism:

--Georges de la Tour, Penitent Magdalene;  The Newborn, both 1640s

idealism—a type of naturalism that conforms to culturally relative concepts of
perfection/beauty:

--Polykleitos, Doryphoros (the Spear-bearer or “the Canon”), 450BC

abstraction—more extreme simplification or stylization of real-world objects;  to
“abstract” is to generalize, simplify, extract the essential forms from the visible
world:

--Anon, Arrest of Christ (Book of Kells), 800 AD; Anon, Dipylon Vase, 750 BC