What is beauty?

[Joblee]

Beauty is a subjective and aesthetic quality that is often associated with a combination of qualities, such as harmony, proportion, and pleasure, perceived in an object, person, or experience.

[Lliam]

Beauty is sensory. I think it applies to visual, auditory and olfactory. Other adjectives than beautiful are used to describe pleasing taste and tactile sensations. But certain smells, sounds and sights are certainly beautiful.

What's beautiful for some may be ugly for others, and what's ugly for some maybe beautiful for others. For example, a person might find certain music intensely, movingly beautiful while another person might not like that kind of music at all.

But, although some people prefer different styles of music, there are general rules for arranging music that effects emotions. These "rules" were arrived at by observing what resonated in the human mind. Harmony, "the fourth the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift", repetition, dynamics, rhythm, building from lows to highs, crescendo, etc.

Just because there are "rules" doesn't mean that they can't be broken. People are always experimenting with music and expanding on conventions. If they didn't music would be boring.

Pleasing visual aesthetics have to do with things like proportion, harmony, symmetry, color and contrast. But, just as with music, visual art is always evolving. And again, people have varying tastes.

As far as we know, humans are the only creatures that appreciate aesthetics. They observe, analyze and remember things. From the dawn of time, they must have been awed by the beauty of landscapes, sunsets, the night sky, flowers, wild creatures, art and decoration. Think of flowers and trinkets found in neolithic graves, cave paintings, tribal masks and costumes, and the amazing art, architecture and adornments of the earliest civilizations.

Humans mimic what they find pleasing and inspiring.

People are fascinated by the human form. Look at the percentage of painting and sculpture that features humans. Men, in particular, are enchanted by the female form. That must be a result of instinctive, evolutionary sexual attraction. Why else would men be turned on by sexual dimorphism, smooth skin, undulating curves, breasts, diminutive upper bodies, narrow waists, wide hips and fat bottoms?

While the rules of proportion, harmony and symmetry apply, there are still a wide variety of tastes and preferences. And what's interesting is, tastes vary based on culture and also over time. So it is impossible to define the most ideally beautiful female face and body. I don't even try. I just know what I like.

[Fireguy17]

Everyone sees beauty differently.
For some it is just the outside of a person, but they can be an angry shrew inside, to others it is the inner beauty vs just looks, or anything in between.

[Anonymous]

It means something different to everyone. I see beauty in the morbid and grotesque sometimes.

[Avicenna]

It's one of those things where you know it when you see it

[Iron_Man]

Thanks for sharing