Beauty of the Beast. John Bascom

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      As it follows, therefore, in regular sequence, there is no one quality or set of qualities. Instead, we say that it itself is a primary and simple quality. There is involved in this assertion an inability to give any explanation of the attribute, or any definition of the word by which it is expressed. It is compound and derived from things which can be explained. Simple things can only be directly known and felt. Any explanation involves a decomposition of the thing explained, a consideration of its parts, and thus an apprehension of it as a whole, or the reference of it to some source or cause whence it proceeded, and in connection with which it is understood.

      Lion

      Albrecht Dürer, c. 1494

      Gouache and gold layer on parchment, 12.6 × 17.2 cm

      Kunsthalle, Hamburg

      But no simple thing can be decompounded and explained through its parts; or can a primary thing be referred as a derivative to something back of it, and thus be explained in its cause.

      Nor is the word by which such simplicity is expressed, capable of any other definition than that of a synonym. A definition must include one or more characteristic and distinguishing qualities by which the thing in hand is separated from all others.

      Sea Crab

      Albrecht Dürer, 1495

      Watercolour, gouache, 26.3 × 35.5 cm

      Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

      But in the case of a simple thing there is but one quality, and that alone can be mentioned, and this is to name a synonym.

      All knowledge, therefore, of that which is simple and primary, whether in perception or intuition, must be direct. Mind must interpret mind, and only by the interpretation of similar faculties can this class of properties be apprehended. Certain original perceptions and intuitions must be granted us as the basis of every defining and explanatory process.

      Detail of The Garden of Earthly Delights (left panel: Paradise)

      Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1500-1505

      Oil on panel

      Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

      Explanation cannot go back of its own postulates to throw light upon starting-points. Senses and faculties directly conversant with qualities the same for all, are these postulates. All simple and primary notions and attributes are directly known through these faculties, and the language which expresses them is only explicable to those who have the key, the chart, of kindred faculties. The term beauty is susceptible, then, of no definition, and the quality beauty of no further knowledge and explanation than that which the very power by which we perceive, feel, and know it is able to give.

      A Young Hare

      Albrecht Dürer, 1502

      Watercolour and gouache on paper, 25 × 23cm

      Grafische Sammlung, Albertina, Vienna

      The conditions and relations of such an attribute may still invite our attention. The simple and primary character of beauty does not exclude our second assertion, which is, that this quality is reasonable, that is, a quality for whose existence a reason can be rendered. Certain other qualities occasion it to exist and these may be pointed out. Right is a primary quality, yet all our judgments of right proceed on certain premises which sustain them, and which can be rendered as a reason why we suppose this characteristic of action present.

      Rearing Horse

      Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1505

      Pen and ink, red chalk, 15.3 × 14.2 cm

      Royal Library, Windsor Castle

      Thus beauty, when present, is so through causes which can be more or less distinctly assigned, and is not, like the properties of matter, merely known to be, without any knowledge of that which occasions them to be. The proof of this is in the fact that there are questions of beauty, by the concession of all, admitting and calling forth discussion; that men not only discuss points of taste, but are persuaded by the reasoning employed. Indeed, if it were as true of intellectual as of physical tastes, that there is no dispute concerning them, our whole department would be at once annihilated and fall back among the things incapable of explanation and knowledge.

      Barn Owl (Syrnium aluco)

      Albrecht СКАЧАТЬ