“In the Classical tradition, deriving from ancient Greece and Rome, beauty was perceived as the means by which the artist captured the viewer's eye in order to engage the viewer with truth and so inspire goodness.” MeanEyeArtistOrderBeautyInspireGoodnessTraditionAncientRomeViewersGreeceCapturedAncient GreeceGreece And Rome Author:John Walford
“In this same tradition, beauty is inextricably bound up with the principles of order and harmony believed to underlie the cosmos. Artists in the Classical tradition, inspired by Platonic idealism, strove to create images that represented not the world of particulars-with all its defects-but an ideal image conceived in the mind, which was taken as representing some absolute, pure, ideal form of which all particular, material forms are but a mere shadow.” WorldMindFormArtistOrderBeautyPrinciplesTakenParticularMaterialsPureShadowIdealsTraditionAbsolutesHarmonyMereInspiredBoundsCosmosIdealismDefectsRepresentingPlatonic Author:John Walford
“Beauty, therefore, for the modern and postmodern artist has become a highly dubious metaphor for a discredited belief system.” ArtistBeliefBeautyModernMetaphorBelief SystemsModern ArtDubiousPostmodern Author:John Walford
“Christ, as the ultimate Imago Dei is alluded to in scripture as being without external beauty in the Classical sense, and should better be thought of as one who passed through all the slime and mire of a fallen and sinful creation in order to redeem it. His own body is to be remembered for the marks it bears-even in resurrection-of the scars of his sacrificial death. For the Christian, a theory of beauty might better begin at this point.” ShouldBodyMightChristianOrderChristBeautyCreationTheoryBearsUltimateMarkScriptureRememberedFallenScarResurrectionSlimeExternal Beauty Author:John Walford
“Begbie offers an additional valuable contribution by rejecting the traditional emphasis on beauty, in its Platonic sense, and instead suggesting that beauty be reconceived in Christological terms-as disorder redeemed.” TermBeautyOffersValuableTraditionalContributionDisorderEmphasisSuggestingRejectingRedeemedPlatonic Author:John Walford