When you think of beauty your mind may go to a sunset or landscape, maybe a famous painting or poem. It is less common to associate beauty with medieval Scholastic philosophy, especially that of a celibate priest named Thomas Aquinas.

Ancient peoples leading up to the Scholastic period took beauty very seriously, believing that beauty was an objective reality outside of our experience or recognition of it. Something was beautiful whether a person realized it or not.

This statement about beauty is an essential foundation for our understanding of art. Each piece of artwork is meant to be a participation in beauty itself. If beauty is an objective reality independent of us, then the artwork that someone creates must reflect that objective standard found within beauty.

Beyond the Physical

Aquinas considered beauty to be an extension of God’s nature. It fell under the category of the “transcendentals,” which also included goodness, oneness, and truth. Transcendent means that the reality itself goes beyond the physical examples of that quality. We say an action is a good action, but goodness itself is bigger than just the goodness of that individual action. We say a statement is true, but that truth itself includes all statements of truth whether we recognize them as true or not.

Aquinas’ classical philosophy tradition considered these transcendentals to be convertible with being, or existence itself. This means that when something is good, true, or beautiful, its goodness, truth, or beauty participates to a greater degree in existence. For example, a truth statement is true because it reflects the way reality is. The statement, “the sky is blue,” is a true statement if the sky actually is blue.

Aquinas considered the idea of “existence itself” as the best way to describe God’s nature. God is not just another part of creation, nor is God identified with creation, but the reality in which all other things participate in existence. This includes both the physical universe as well as the invisible realities like truth, goodness, and beauty.

What Is Beauty?

To Aquinas, beauty proceeded from God’s essence and God is an objective reality. This means that beauty is also objective reality and is not simply in the eye of the beholder, determined by subjective tastes. This means that beauty can be identified by the three following objective properties, harmony, clarity, and integrity.

Harmony

Harmony (Latin: consonantia) is defined as the proportion of parts in relationship to each other, describing how the pieces of something fit together. We recognize this in the way that certain colors complement each other or different musical notes seem to work well together (literally called “harmonizing”). This harmony is also recognized visually in the symmetry found in artwork and faces.

Clarity

Clarity (claritas) is defined as the radiance found in an object. It is recognized in the purity of a color or the cleanliness of a room. The clearest example of this is the difference between the face of a live person and the face of a dead one. Clarity is how the beauty of something is communicated to us. It is typical for an artist to want observers to understand the point that piece of art is trying to make. This is what clarity serves.

Integrity

Integrity (integritas) is defined as the completeness of an object. Every part essential to the object is there. An example of integrity many appreciate is the beauty found in the ways that players work together on a team. When they fulfill their designated roles in order to score a goal, basket, or touchdown, the players fit together and work toward the purpose of the game.

How to See Something Beautiful

“Do I like it?” is the first question many have upon seeing a piece of artwork. Yet truly beautiful art should draw us into deeper contemplation of the piece’s harmony, clarity, and integrity.

Does a piece of artwork show harmony in the shapes, colors, figures, and images within the piece’s boundaries? Does the piece show clarity in the way it presents the truth about reality? Finally, does the piece have integrity in its subject? Is it presenting the truth, with all parts of the piece directed to the “main thing”? This requires one to ask about the purpose of the piece, and then analyze whether everything in the painting or sculpture is serving that purpose.

How to Live a Beautiful Life

All these objective elements of beauty can be found in any person because any person is capable of living a life of harmony, clarity, and integrity. For example, the virtue of temperance harmonizes one’s desires well by avoiding the extremes of denial and indulgence. This harmonization of desires will produce appreciation and contentment, which is noticeably attractive to others. Finally, making temperance a habit will affect other areas of one’s life so they work together more effectively.

Aquinas wanted to understand God as well as he could so that he could love God better. He recognized that God is the Source of beauty because God is the Efficient Cause of everything, including beauty itself. This meant that by understanding beauty Aquinas would understand a different aspect of God’s nature, while also recognizing the beauty that exists in the world more easily. And when we understand beauty, we can recognize the same in the world and in everyone else, including ourselves.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.

Image credit: Pixnio