A Comprehensive History of Western Aesthetics, Volume 2: Medieval Renaissance Aesthetics

Author: Lu Yang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-10-01
Features: In summary, although Augustine, like Plato, had many negative views on art, just as Plato was the most poetic philosopher in ancient Greece, Augustine was undoubtedly the most artistically inclined theological figure in the Middle Ages. Augustine's theories on art and his theory of beauty clearly show the convergence of three cultures: Greek, Hebrew, and Christian. From Greek culture, he inherited the tradition of cherishing beauty and the critical standard that moral values are superior to art; he introduced the spirit of the sublime from Hebrew culture; and he was deeply influenced by the sense of guilt in Christian culture. By this point, the basic framework of medieval aesthetics had been established. As Augustine famously said about beauty: "Is it because things are beautiful that they give pleasure, or do they give pleasure because they are beautiful? The answer I will undoubtedly give is: things give pleasure because they are beautiful."① And the reason why things are beautiful, whether they manifest the principles of order, unity, and number in any way, ultimately stems from the will of God as the cause.