Aesthetic of Art
Course Teacher: Afsana Sharmin
Aesthetic definition
Aesthetics (/ɛsˈθɛtɪks/; also spelled æsthetics and esthetics also known in Greek as
Αισθητική, or "Aisthētiké") is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature
of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more
scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensory-emotional values, sometimes
called judgments of sentiment and taste.
Deriving from the Greek word for perception (aisthesis), and first used in the 18th
century by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten, the term "aesthetics"
(also known as æsthetics or esthetics) refers to those principles governing the
nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in visual art.
Aesthetics is for the artist as Ornithology is for the birds.
— Barnett Newman
For some, aesthetics is considered a synonym for the philosophy of art.
Put simply, aesthetics covers questions like:
• What is beauty?
• What makes something beautiful?
• What is art?
• What is the difference between good art and bad art?
• What is the value of art?
• Who is qualified to decide what art is?
• What is the difference between arts and (say) entertainment?
• What is the difference between fine art and applied art?
Beauty is a characteristic of an animal, idea, object, person or place that provides
a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part
of aesthetics, culture, social psychology and sociology. An "ideal beauty" is an entity
which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular
culture, for perfection.
The experience of "beauty" often involves an interpretation of some entity as being in
balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings
of attraction and emotional well-being. Because this can be a subjective experience, it is
often said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Art and pleasure
Value of art is necessarily connected with pleasure or enjoyment because, they
argue, to say that a painting, a poem, a play or a piece of music is good is just the
same as saying that it pleases us. Important thing about art is it’s ‘agreeableness,
the pleasure we derive from it, and that this is a matter of our sentiments, not its
intrinsic nature. ‘Judgments’ about good and bad in art, are not really judgments at
all ‘because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself.
The Nature of pleasure
The nature of pleasure So far it has proved impossible to ground the value or
importance of art on pleasure or entertainment value. The concept of pleasure is
one of a mental or psychological experience that different things can cause in us
roughly opposite to pain. Art and beauty, beauty and pleasure the idea that the
value of the arts lies in the pleasure we derive from them and saw that such a
view is insufficient to explain what is special about the arts over other sources of
pleasure. Aesthetic pleasures ‘have a special character of their own and exist in a
different manner from the pleasures deriving from a good meal or fresh air or a
good bath’. What could this pleasure be? One obvious answer is – the pleasure
that accompanies beauty. We automatically praise something when we call it
beautiful, and criticize it when we describe it as ugly. But this raises an important
philosophical question.
