The concept of beauty in art

Abstract

Before the invention of the camera, it was only possible to document beauty through art. For centuries, art and beauty were inseparable. Different meanings were attributed to the “beautiful” in history. Sometimes noble simplicity and calm sublimity were accepted as beauty; sometimes moral beauty was at the forefront. Among the beauties, a special place and importance was given to female beauty in the history of art. The untouched, desired, hopelessly loved woman of the Middle Ages later became the main subject of a painting genre. Nudes, which were first made for religious reasons such as to depict a specific scene from the bible, later diversified under the subject of Venus. The female body has become the object of sensual consumption. In addition to female beauty, the beauty of nature has always been among the subjects of art. Art imitated nature for a while because it was beautiful. It was the background to which man was exposed during his natural evolution. The proportions of nature were good for people, they were found beautiful. Nature, which was previously handled only with a style based on imitation, was handled with an abstract expression in time, thanks to the avant-garde artists of the 20th century. It was a period in which different styles of expression were tried. Modernism, where wisdom, beauty, and refinement were sought, was for an elite audience who idealized nature. It left its place to postmodernism in which sensual stimulation was sought rather than an intellectual admiration, which is for mass media and where craftsmanship is idealized. The individual of the 21st century consumer society, who is passionately attracted to the beauty of their own image that is presented to the gaze of others on social media, resembles the nobles of the Renaissance period, when the charm of the wealth obtained through overseas trade was depicted with a similar passion.