What Is Beauty?
Beauty is often defined as a subjective feature of certain objects, which makes these objects enjoyable to see. Such objects could be landscapes, sunsets, beautiful humans, works of art and beauty. Beauty, along with other aesthetic senses, is perhaps the most important consideration of aesthetics, one of the key branches of fine arts. It has been stated that beauty is beauty and nothing else; in short it is the only definition of beauty. Defined in this way beauty differs from sentiment or personal opinion as it relies completely on the human eyes.
The term beauty has many different usage in many cultures. In some places it has even been used as a description of the prevailing culture or social class. In some other cases it has been considered a necessary and definitive aspect of beauty. In the present times it has become an essential aspect of aesthetic education and research. This is because the influence of beauty has increased so significantly that it can no longer be explained by biological differences alone.
The prevailing theories of beauty try to explain beauty by identifying and recording the essential characteristics that beautify human qualities. These theories may either be cultural or personal. For example, in certain cultures beauty is associated with the features of a particular physical body and in other cultures beauty is ascribed to the aesthetic experience of a person. These theories could also be related to neurology and its contribution to the definition of beauty. The theories of beauty are greatly debated due to their various definitions and contributions. It has been found that although all of them are theoretically sound, there are many exceptions to any given theory.
Cultural theories on beauty make it clear that beauty is a very subjective experience and is influenced by several different factors such as culture and class. The theories of beauty therefore relate human beauty to the social hierarchy, which could be determined by the cultural norms. Another important factor is beauty in literature. It is based on the aesthetic values derived from the literature. Beauty in literature has to do with plot, characters, style, language and various other factors related to literary forms.
Some physical attributes of a human body are also considered as beauty. According to some of these ideas beauty consists of physical beauty, mental beauty, and spiritual beauty. However, these definitions are not entirely correct. Beauty has also been defined as the capacity to generate desire in humans. Desire in humans is defined as the motivation to act according to the satisfaction of that need.
Another important definition of beauty is that beauty is the desire of others for the attainment of some benefit. Another theory on beauty is that beauty is the purpose of art and beautyistry. Some of the most famous works such as Rembrandt’s The Night Cafe were done only as an attempt to provide satisfaction to the women of that time. In the history of aesthetic studies, theory of symbolism has also been widely used to explain the phenomenon of beauty. The theories of beauty are often associated with the work of Leonardo da Vinci, who is said to be the archetype of beauty.