Identify a Piece of Art Which Has Communicated Beauty to You, What Precisely Is This Beauty and How Is It That Art Manages to Convey It?
‘Art’ and ‘beauty’ are the two key terms in this question. Firstly ‘art’ is defined as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture”. This means that ‘art’ has to be man-made as the “application of human creative skill and imagination” is required to produce a piece of art. It cannot be anything found in nature like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls, but rather it is a visual representation of the artist’s imagination. Next, the definition of ‘beauty’ is “a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction”. Meaning ‘beauty’ is when something is perceived to be pleasurable. The famous quote by Immanuel Kant “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”; saying that individuals have their own unique vision of the abstract, further emphasizing that ‘beauty’ is subjective to each individual. A piece of art that has communicated beauty to me would be ‘The creation of Adam’ which is arguably the most famous section of Michelangelo’s mural painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was one of the last panels of the mural to be completed in 1512, and depicts God, supported by angels in flight and wrapped in a mantle, leans towards Adam, shown as a resting athlete, whose beauty seems to confirm the words in Genesis 1:27 “God created man in His own image”, and their fingers nearly touching.
The panel is traditionally thought to illustrate the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man. The focal point of the panel is the nearly touching fingers of God and Adam; it has brought about much debate and speculation on what Michelangelo truly wanted to portray through the painting. One of the many theories is that because of the small gap between their fingers, Michelangelo was depicting the wondrous moment just before God gave life to Adam and as a result
The panel is traditionally thought to illustrate the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man. The focal point of the panel is the nearly touching fingers of God and Adam; it has brought about much debate and speculation on what Michelangelo truly wanted to portray through the painting. One of the many theories is that because of the small gap between their fingers, Michelangelo was depicting the wondrous moment just before God gave life to Adam and as a result