La parabola del brutto: da «non essere» a reale
Despite the fact that the modern era will be considered the golden age of the theory of the Ugly, this still seems to be in antithesis with common sense, which links aesthetics to Beauty. In fact, the adjective ‘ugly’ implies the existence of beauty somewhere; however, as will be shown in this paper...
| Published in: | Annali di studi religiosi |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | Italian |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2011
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| In: |
Annali di studi religiosi
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Despite the fact that the modern era will be considered the golden age of the theory of the Ugly, this still seems to be in antithesis with common sense, which links aesthetics to Beauty. In fact, the adjective ‘ugly’ implies the existence of beauty somewhere; however, as will be shown in this paper, both attributes can be linked to a much wider meaning, going beyond the exterior appearance they refer to. In fact, during large part of the history of aesthetics, they referred to a moral meaning, where beauty was equivalent with good, and ugly meant bad. Only in recent times has this link between appearance and moral meaning been dissolved, allowing the Ugly to be theorized in a fully independent way also with respect to Beauty. The fi rst part of this paper analyses a number of important aspects of the idea of aesthetics, from Plato to the modern times. Two are the key factors, linked one to another, of this refl ection: the fi rst is the link that originally connected exterior appearance to a moral judgment, following the rule that visible beauty indicates the good and the true, and that - on the contrary - what appeared ugly had be morally bad. The second factor is the gradual dissolution of this link between a moral judgment of the external appearance and therefore the independence of the Ugly. This is somehow linked itself to the Sublime, which does not indicate greater beauty, but the excess that becomes terrifying. If Beauty corresponds to order and harmony, ugly and sublime indicate what is discordant and disharmonious. It will be shown that Ugly, from the status of a ‘not-being’ concept, has become a truthful expression of the real and will therefore play a key role in the diversifi cation of aesthetics into philosophy and theology. |
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| ISSN: | 2284-3892 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Annali di studi religiosi
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