The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of Aesthetic TheorySantayana, George
Philosophy
The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory
Santayana, George
Aesthetics
Sight is, therefore, perception _par excellence,_ since we become
most easily aware of objects through visual agency and in visual
terms. Now, as the values of perception are those we call aesthetic,
and there could be no beauty if there was no conception of
independent objects, we may expect to find beauty derived mainly
from the pleasures of sight. And, in fact, form, which is almost a
synonym of beauty, is for us usually something visible: it is a
synthesis of the seen. But prior to the effect of form, which arises
in the constructive imagination, comes the effect of colour; this is
purely sensuous, and no better intrinsically than the effects of any
other sense: but being more involved in the perception of objects
than are the rest, it becomes more readily an element of beauty.
The values of colours differ appreciably and have analogy to the
differing values of other sensations. As sweet or pungent smells, as
high and low notes, or major and minor chords, differ from each
other by virtue of their different stimulation of the senses, so also
red differs from green, and green from violet. There is a nervous
process for each, and consequently a specific value. This emotional
quality has affinity to the emotional quality of other sensations; we
need not be surprised that the high rate of vibration which yields a
sharp note to the ear should involve somewhat the same feeling
that is produced by the high rate of vibration which, to the eye,
yields a violet colour. These affinities escape many minds; but it is
conceivable that the sense of them should be improved by accident
or training. There are certain effects of colour which give all men
pleasure, and others which jar, almost like a musical discord. A
more general development of this sensibility would make possible
a new abstract art, an art that should deal with colours as music
does with sound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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