Yet the notion of ideal beauty cannot be so easily dismissed. At this time we also have a widespread commitment to this doctrine. In France we can see that there are artists at work (as opposed to theoreticising) that fulfil the ideals practically. Poussin, in his Adoration of the Shepherds (c1634), uses the concept of ideal beauty to create a Biblical image of the highest genre of the time (see Walsh, Book 1, p.93 for hierarchies of the genres). In it he portrays both the announcement of the birth of Christ (in the background) as well as the actual birth (from Luke 2:15-16). Such a scene could not be an imitation of nature but is taken form literary and imaginary sources. In order to portray an imagined event Poussin has used parts of the world as they are, and were, but fitted them together in his own way so as to give them the best meaning. All parts are borrowed but imaginatively put together. The architecture is unnaturally classical and arranged in an unnatural way, but a way that frames and draws the eyes to the activities below and behind. The figures are caught in particular acts that dramatise the events and aid us to follow its meaning by their formal structures. The composition of the figures draw our eyes to the new born Christ, then, via the donkey, back in time to the scene behind. There is no ‘personality’ to any of them, they all conform to some kind of ideal – the muscle tones and fullness of bodies, and the dramatic poses are all reminiscent of classical sculpture. The cherubs above too can only be idealised images that are formal and ideological devices. The whole picture is an imagined translation. Its beauty comes from its geometry and composition and the idealisation of its parts. It is an example of nature yielding to art for a greater beauty via rationality, legibility (through formal elements) and idealism: Charles Le Brun’s own canonical criterion in France in the mid seventeenth century (see Book1, p.113).
Similarly in Germany in mid 1700 Winckelmann proposes the idea also that ‘nature must yield to art’ (Fernie, p. 76) and it is the purified image of the world that makes art so beautiful. Following Vasari’s cyclical concept of art history too it is precisely the following of such ideals alongside the classical ideals of proportion, design and order that prevent art from falling into decline. The importance again then of ideal beauty comes down to its relations with the past and its historical success and the chance to sustain a certain ideology (connoisseurship). In England, Joshua Reynolds develops Le Brun’s academic interests, and in his Discourses argues for art that depicts great ideas rather than the world around us (Book 1, p.128) - ‘A mere copier of nature’, he claims (Reader, p.36), ‘can never produce anything great’. The ability to teach such ‘superior’ practices further confirms the value of classical works and ideals and the intellectualisation of art is assisted by the notion that the artist can create a world more perfectly than the world around him/her through their, imagination, their intellect and their skills.
The continuing interest in ideal beauty then seems to have around the 18th c an intellectual determination. Its value is not wholly economic (portraiture being the genre most in demand) as Perry discusses in Case Study 4 (Book1, p.129), but helps art progress from its perception as a trade towards a ‘higher’, liberal art (Ibid. p.128) in its classical and intellectual intimation. This may be a politically motivated reason for the importance of ideal beauty but it preserved its value in western art. It was not however the only doctrine that artists aimed for. Such uniformity did not satisfy everyone. Hogarth for example did not see beauty in such terms as the idea. Beauty was in nature, we just had to see it. In 1753 Hogarth wrote his book The Analysis of Beauty arguing that to find beauty we only had to study nature. In nature, he claims, we see variety and irregularity, and it is this that pleases the eye. Any regularity and symmetry in art is still pleasing to the eye but soon becomes ‘tiresome’ (Reader, p.44) and mundane. The eye needs movement and variety to keep it interested. Assuming that it is the eye that perceives beauty then we must please the eye first and foremost.
Hogarth is providing us here with evidence that during the eighteenth century ideas about beauty were not solely confided to the platonic ideals we began with. He was not alone; Ruskin also preferred the empirical method of discovering beauty, and the following rejection of academic convention through the Pre-Raphaelites conferred a higher status on truth to nature, more reminiscent of the Northern Canon (Book 2, p.181), rather than the stylised ideal beauty that it came to be. Art became known to be great by its perfection in its intricate observation of nature, perfected by Van Eyck (Van Mander, in Fernie, p.45) in the Netherlands in preceding centuries rather than any ideal sense as in Italy and France. True beauty then rivals and celebrates the intricacies and beauty of nature rather than trying to surpass with a definite ordered ideal. This may be seen as a reaction to the stuffiness of academicians (Book 1, p.249) but it provides primary evidence of the changing importance of ideal beauty. In a way however even Hogarths empiricism is a form of ideal beauty. In it we can see that within nature, however irregular, there are innate formal elements that cause beauty. Looking at his illustrations of lines (Reader, p.49) Hogarth is in fact developing another system of what counts as beautiful. It is a standard that when used imaginatively creates beautiful forms and therefore retains an importance to beauty as an ideal form, brought spectacularly out by the creative and observant artist.
It is however an evolving form of ideal beauty that moves parallel with the evolution of western art in this period due to its political, economic and cultural influences. If we look at a later painting in the nineteenth century by Ford Madox Brown entitled Work we can see this development take place further. Being the Christian socialist that he was (Jacobs, A Guide to European Painting, p. 216) Madox Brown believed work to be essential to human well-being. To illustrate this he has created an image that is specifically composed in a way that is best suited for his intentions. With the need to differentiate between the noble worker, straining and thirsty but healthy and muscular, and the ‘ragged wrench’ (Ibid.) that idles her life away, as well as the sagacious pride of the ‘brainworkers’, Brown creates an image of individual value that both imitates and idealises nature. Each individual is different to express the social reality but in a way that is stylised, or idealised, to become personifications of socialist stereotypes. The scene is therefore composed in the imagination and the individual parts are idealised portrayals (however realistic) of certain ideas, and indeed ‘rivals history painting in its scale and elaboration’ (Barker and Cunningham, Book1, p.250). So we can also see that the importance of ideal beauty is still in a sense valuable in art as a method of getting something across to the viewer, whilst working alongside alternative concepts of beauty as truth to nature. It is a combination of aesthetic conventions that further develops (evolves) the notion of beauty in art.
After an inspection then of what ideal beauty means, and seeing how that concept is, or is not, put into practice over the centuries from the sources given (above), we can see that the concept of ideal beauty was a hugely valuable tool in re-defining art, providing art with a standard of excellence and providing educational conventions to teach artists the necessary skills of seeing. Its importance then comes from a mixture of aesthetics and political, social and cultural interests. The sources we have been looking at provide evidence of the evolution of the value of ideal beauty during this time period both practically and theoretically, and in considering the context of such evidence we can understand why it was important. Therefore, from looking at this evidence we can claim that the concept of ideal beauty did remain an important element throughout the evolution of western art between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries as an ideal in itself (an evolving ideal) and as a point of reference to alternate concepts of beauty. Yet even in alternative ideals it essence – an underlying form brought out by artistic imagination and skill – remains constant in art practice and theory.
Bibliography
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Book 1. Academies, Museums and Canons of Art. Edited by Gill Perry and Colin Cunningham. Yale University press in association with The Open University, 1999.
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Book 2. The Changing Status of the Artist. Edited by Emma Barker, Nick Webb, and Kim Woods. Yale University press in association with The Open University, 1999.
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Fernie, Eric. Art History and its Methods. .Phaidon Press. 2003 ed. Including Bellori, Lives of the Mode4rn Painters, pp.63-7.
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Jacobs, Michael. A Guide to European Painting. David and Charles Publishers ltd. 1980
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Reader: Art and its Histories: A Reader. Edited by Steve Edwards. Yale University Press, in associat5ion with The Open University, 1999. Including Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, pp.43-52.
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Study Handbook 1. Academies, Museums and Canons of Art. Nicola Durbridge and Gillian Perry. The Open University, 1999. For The Open University course A216, Art and its Histories.
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Sim, Stuart. Art: Context and Value. The Open University, 1994
