Marcia Muelder Eaton, “Locating the Aesthetic”, ABQ
8
84
…works valued almost universally in one place or
time lose their status when moved spatially or temporally.
In our own period we are witnessing marked changes in what is
valued—in what is considered suitable for aesthetic appreciation. (We’re moving
away from the modernist emphasis on the medium and its properties to a renewed
interest in subject matter—moving from form back to content.)
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After years of being urged to attend
only to formal properties, it is often a great relief to be able to talk openly
about subject matter and characters and artists’ intentions and social
context—to speak, that is, as if there were something out there and in here
that art deals with.
Throughout history there has been much
discussion of subject matter, which I believe is a truly aesthetic property. I
offer it as an example of a feature that theorists have considered an aesthetic
property in some periods but not in others.
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[Some may believe] that ‘aesthetic’
cannot be defined…. This is what I want to deny. What is aesthetic
remains constant even though specific features pointed to as aesthetically
valuable may change.
Example 1: the Romans made instruments
bigger. If horns were louder they had more aesthetic value. “Being big
and loud were a source of delight…”
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Example 2: for Veronese, his paintings
aimed at sumptuousness and conviviality.
Example 3: In 17th century
Holland, paintings in homes were aesthetic if they showed the owners’
prosperousness and property, such as “the room shows my rug”.
Eaton’s definition: “delight in what
resides intrinsically in something is a mark of the aesthetic generally.”
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We do care about artists and about how
and why they did their works, but the key aspect is attending with delight to
what’s intrinsic to the work itself—this is what’s aesthetic.
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Example 4 of how the aesthetic
can change: for the Middle Ages, what mattered was craftsmanship
and finishedness; for the Renaissance and up to today, often what matters
is the genius’s effort and process, so even an
unfinished work can be appreciated aesthetically, like Michelangelo’s
unfinished “Slaves”.