Filling in a bit of time while something downloads... A few days ago I went to Madrid where I saw the Prado for the first time. The Goyas were truly fascinating. (I don't know what other word to use. Certainly not 'beautiful'.)
There is a very interesting contrast at one point. In one gallery of 16/17 th century works they have a wonderful Veronese - 'Venus and Adonis', which I knew from reproductions but which was even more striking 'in the flesh' so to speak. Not far away there is a roomful of Goyas which includes the amazing "Great He-Goat (Witches Sabbath)". If you go straight from one to the other you realize just how appropriate the idea of beauty is for paintings of one kind, and how hopelessly - almost comically - incongruous it for others. You can stand in front of the Veronese and quite reasonably want to say: 'That is a beautiful painting'. But to stand in front of the Goya - especially this one! - and say the same would, in my view, be a truly bizarre thing to do. I could not tear myself away but 'beauty' had nothing to do with it. Yet aesthetics persists with the idea that 'beauty' is somehow central to all art. ' Sans blague?' as the French would say. -- Derek Allan http://www.home.netspeed.com.au/derek.allan/default.htm
