What Is Beauty?

Beauty is often defined as an attribute of certain objects which makes these objects enjoyable to see. These objects include beautiful sunsets, landscapes, humans and artistic works of art. Beauty, along with taste and art, is the most important topic of aesthetics, among the major branches of art history. There are many theories and arguments as to what makes a work of beauty great.

One of the most influential aesthetic theories of all time concerns the idea of proportion. The proportion of a painting or a photograph according to some aesthetic standard was once seen as a measure of artistic beauty. The most famous example of this is the Mona Lisa, which is still considered to be the most beautiful painting ever produced by a human artist. Another major concern with aesthetics pertains to form. In a more modern perspective, beauty is seen in the arrangement of parts rather than the overall impression created by the piece.

Representation in art includes objects’ shape, size, texture, color, form and human bodies. Beauty in human bodies is evaluated using a variety of five-point systems including form, intensity, importance, contrast, and body area. According to the general theory of aesthetics, beauty exists on the level of the brain’s desire for order and composition. The aesthetic balance of a work of art depends on the brain’s correspondence between the human body area it represents, its shape, size and texture, and the qualities it combines with those aspects. This theory suggests that beauty exists in the brain before any object that it represents can physically exist in the world.