[University of Michigan, 2008]
In Chapter 1 of Umberto Eco’s Art
and Beauty in the Middle Ages, titled “The
Medieval Aesthetic Sensibility,” Eco discusses his views on the Medieval Era’s idea of beauty. According to Eco, the Medievals viewed nature as a reflection of the transcendent world, and while many of the views that they held originate from the Classical Period or from the Bible, the ideas of the Medievals are unique in that they were assimilated from a completely different philosophical perspective. Beauty to the Medievals was encompassed in every day feelings and experiences. They appreciated the beauty of moral harmony and of metaphysical magnificence. The everyday sensuous tastes of the ordinary man, along with the soul, artists, and lovers of art were all viewed as beautiful. There was an important contrast between external and internal beauty. Earthly beauty implied melancholy because of its transience. Beautiful objects such as paintings and sculptures found in the church were deemed inappropriate not for its beauty but for its location. St. Bernard, while acknowledging the beauty of such objects, denoted such sculptures as a distraction from the meditation of God. Interior beauty was felt to be secure in that it does not perish. Human and natural beauty was an important aspect of aesthetics. One way that beauty was defined was the idea of an intellect freely contemplating the wonder and beauty of an object. Rules were formulated for correctly describing a beautiful woman, and the proper size and position of her breasts were also defined. The most defining factor of the Medieval Era’s sense of beauty, however, is the perception that all feelings of artistic beauty found in paintings, sculptures, statues, and other objects of beauty, whether physical or abstract, were immediately converted to a sense of communication with God. The Medieval Era is an era characterized by an amazing integration of values, and people automatically associated beauty and all things good and wondrous as a direct result of the work of God. Thus, doubt exists as to whether the people of this era could truly appreciate beauty for itself. Arguably, they recognized beauty, but since they immediately associated it as an act of God, they failed to recognize it as simply beautiful in itself. Collectors of the era owned many beautiful yet odd pieces of art, and so Eco justifies that the Medievals were unable to discern between artistically beautiful objects and objects of curiosity.
I believe that the music we have studied in class thus far does in fact correlate with Eco’s views about the medieval aesthetic sense of beauty. For example, Eco states that “natural beauty was finally recovered in all its positive value” (Eco 10). In Francesso Landini’s balata Ecco la primavera, he writes about the coming of Spring and the “loveliness” (beauty) of all things associated with the season: falling in love, the air, the weather, the meadows with fresh grass, flowers, and trees. Falling in love is an everyday “lived experience” that Eco also mentions as a characteristic of Medieval beauty. The air, weather, meadows with fresh grass, flowers, and trees all represent things from nature, and so we see that Landini recognizes the beauty of natural things. Ciconia speaks of a beautiful rose, another object of nature, in his balata O rosa bella. He is comparing the rose to his lady and depicting the unfulfilled love for his lady, his beautiful rose.
Medieval Aesthetic Sensibility,” Eco discusses his views on the Medieval Era’s idea of beauty. According to Eco, the Medievals viewed nature as a reflection of the transcendent world, and while many of the views that they held originate from the Classical Period or from the Bible, the ideas of the Medievals are unique in that they were assimilated from a completely different philosophical perspective. Beauty to the Medievals was encompassed in every day feelings and experiences. They appreciated the beauty of moral harmony and of metaphysical magnificence. The everyday sensuous tastes of the ordinary man, along with the soul, artists, and lovers of art were all viewed as beautiful. There was an important contrast between external and internal beauty. Earthly beauty implied melancholy because of its transience. Beautiful objects such as paintings and sculptures found in the church were deemed inappropriate not for its beauty but for its location. St. Bernard, while acknowledging the beauty of such objects, denoted such sculptures as a distraction from the meditation of God. Interior beauty was felt to be secure in that it does not perish. Human and natural beauty was an important aspect of aesthetics. One way that beauty was defined was the idea of an intellect freely contemplating the wonder and beauty of an object. Rules were formulated for correctly describing a beautiful woman, and the proper size and position of her breasts were also defined. The most defining factor of the Medieval Era’s sense of beauty, however, is the perception that all feelings of artistic beauty found in paintings, sculptures, statues, and other objects of beauty, whether physical or abstract, were immediately converted to a sense of communication with God. The Medieval Era is an era characterized by an amazing integration of values, and people automatically associated beauty and all things good and wondrous as a direct result of the work of God. Thus, doubt exists as to whether the people of this era could truly appreciate beauty for itself. Arguably, they recognized beauty, but since they immediately associated it as an act of God, they failed to recognize it as simply beautiful in itself. Collectors of the era owned many beautiful yet odd pieces of art, and so Eco justifies that the Medievals were unable to discern between artistically beautiful objects and objects of curiosity.
I believe that the music we have studied in class thus far does in fact correlate with Eco’s views about the medieval aesthetic sense of beauty. For example, Eco states that “natural beauty was finally recovered in all its positive value” (Eco 10). In Francesso Landini’s balata Ecco la primavera, he writes about the coming of Spring and the “loveliness” (beauty) of all things associated with the season: falling in love, the air, the weather, the meadows with fresh grass, flowers, and trees. Falling in love is an everyday “lived experience” that Eco also mentions as a characteristic of Medieval beauty. The air, weather, meadows with fresh grass, flowers, and trees all represent things from nature, and so we see that Landini recognizes the beauty of natural things. Ciconia speaks of a beautiful rose, another object of nature, in his balata O rosa bella. He is comparing the rose to his lady and depicting the unfulfilled love for his lady, his beautiful rose.
Eco also reminds us that Matthew of Vendome developed a set of
rules for describing beautiful women. In Guillaume de Machaut’s ballade Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer, he
compares his lady to the quintessential image of a beautiful woman:
Pygmalion’s ivory statue of a perfect maiden. This shows that Machaut’s
idea of beauty was set for him by example, and because he loves a lady who
closely resembles the statue, we can see that Machaut was striving for a
pre-determined idea of beauty. This
strive for Pygmalion’s conception of
beauty, rather than his own, is analogous with the Medieval view of a
predetermined, universal beauty as depicted by Vendome. Pygmalion’s ivory statue was designed so
perfectly that Pygmalion dressed her and bought her gifts of jewelry and
exquisite clothing as if she were a real person. Machaut compares his
lady to Pygmalion’s perfect statue, and laments that like the statue, his lady
does not return his love and never answers him. It is a lamenting
ballade, telling the story of Machaut’s personal experience with heartache and
loss, and he found this theme to be beautiful as it was an everyday occurrence,
a feeling, an experience. As Eco states, “…Medievals did not refer first
to something abstract and conceptual. It referred also to everyday
feelings, to lived experience” (Eco 4).
The Medieval sense of beauty is
different from the modern sense of beauty in many ways. In today’s society, we place a high value on
physical artwork: paintings, sculptures,
drawings, and statues. People flock art
museums daily, straining to get a glance at a billion dollar work of art. While the Medievals found physical objects to
be beautiful as well, they also found beauty in abstract ideas such as nature,
the human soul, everyday feelings such as being in love or experiencing
heartbreak, and the ordinary man. We
lack this perspective. We have indeed
lost the feelings for intelligible beauty.
We are so concerned with a million dollar painting of a black circle
with a dot in it, or a series of stripes that is titled “art” because of its
originality, that we forget to appreciate the beauty of our every day
lives. The smell of a rose, the colors
of the leaves in the fall, or being in love.
The realm of the aesthetic was much larger in the Medieval period than
it is nowadays. The people of this
period associated beauty with much more ease and with many more physical as
well as abstract ideas than we do today.
They recognized beauty in nature, every day experiences, the human soul,
artists, lovers of art, feelings, moral harmony, metaphysical splendor, the
tastes of ordinary man, physical objects and certain women. Today, however, our vision of beauty is quite
limited. Beauty is stereotyped in the
media. A standard is placed on a
“beautiful” woman, and while the Medievals placed a standard on beautiful women
as well, today’s stereotypes are taken to a far larger extreme. A beautiful woman by today’s standards is
tall, skinny, blonde, and large breasted.
The ideal beautiful women always has desirable traits. In fact, any beautiful object in today’s
world is always appealing to the eye;
the house with bright blue shutters is much more appealing to us than the black
house with black shutters. Not only do
we fail to see beauty in physical objects that may not be necessarily alluring
to look at, but we also fail to see beauty in intangible ideas, such as love,
peace, or the human soul.
We would want to recuperate a
Medieval sense of beauty for many reasons.
We should try to expand our sense of beauty so that it is as large as
the Medieval sense was. While unlike the
Medievals, we can recognize beauty as beauty- that is, we can incorporate an
object as being truly beautiful and not simply a product of God- we would have
a much deeper appreciation for the world we live in if we could appreciate the
simple and sometimes intangible things in life:
feelings, nature, inner beauty, everyday experiences, and humanity
itself, as the Medievals did.
Our society is far too fastidious when it comes to epitomizing
beauty. Beauty is special, yes, but not
rare. We would find beauty all around us
if we would only look. A simple melodic
line, the sunset, or the pattern of the sand on a beach. Morality, love, and people. Not just people that are appealing to look
at, but plain-looking, ordinary people as well.
Inner beauty. Good people who
have good standards and are trying to make the world a better place. Beauty lies in all of these things, but we
are so tunnel visioned in looking for tall, skinny blondes that we miss the
simple beauty that surrounds us. Beauty
may be in the eye of the beholder, but if that eye is discriminating too
harshly on what constitutes beauty, than beauty will become more and more standardized
until it diminishes to rarity and possibly nothingness.
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