Aesthetics

Image of a face generated by averaging 16 original faces, which leads to the hypothesis that the process of averaging a variety of different faces produce beauty. Armand Marie Leroi, a developmental biologist at Imperial College, London, even hypothesized that race-mixing can increase the likelihood of physical attractiveness.

Aesthetics is the philosophical study of the nature and experience of art and beauty.

Aesthetics and the Golden Ratio

Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of the human body emphasized its proportion. The ratio of the distances from foot to navel, and navel to head, is the Golden Ratio.

Greek scholars believed that the Golden Ratio (also called divine proportion) is the key to beauty. Artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Salvador Dali often incorporate the Golden Ratio in their drawings.

Definition of "art"

Art has been defined in the field of aesthetics in various ways. Some adhere to a rigid definition of "art", such as paintings, sculpture and other traditional genres, while others believe that art should not be strictly defined, and thus believe that anything progressive may be labeled as such.

Architecture

Aesthetics is an important part of architecture. A poll co-sponsored by an architectural society revealed the following public ranking of favorites, with the name of the architect in parentheses:

1. Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon)
2. The White House (James Hoban)
3. Washington National Cathedral (George Bodley and Henry Vaughan)
4. Jefferson Memorial (John Russell Pope)
5. Golden Gate Bridge (Irving F. Morrow and Gertrude C. Morrow)
6. U.S. Capitol (William Thornton, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Charles Bulfinch, Thomas U. Walter, Montgomery C. Meigs)
7. Lincoln Memorial (Henry Bacon)
8. Biltmore Estate/Vanderbilt Mansion (Richard Morris Hunt)
9. Chrysler Building (William Van Alen)
10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Maya Lin with Cooper-Lecky Partnership)
11. St. Patrick's Cathedral (James Renwick)

See also

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• Music
• The Renaissance
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Sistine Chapel
• Spanish Golden Age
• Irish Dance
• Sculpture
• Master of Arts
• Painting Masterpieces
• Jacques Louis David

External links

• National Arts Education
• The Arts U. S. Life, Culture and History.
• Academic Art Artcyclopedia.