In this post, Allison Peller shares her thoughts on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature, particularly the chapter about Beauty and how it pertains to artists. {Emphasis added by yours truly.}
Love of Beauty and the Birth of the Artist
by Allison Peller at First Things
…Beauty in art has been the source of countless philosophies, treatises, and debates for thousands of years. It is a discussion I typically try to avoid, as the definition of Beauty (with a capital ‘B’) is based almost entirely on individual taste and each rule seems to have twenty exceptions leading down a never-ending rabbit hole from which there is no return. But recently, I was reading Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson and was unexpectedly struck by his chapter entitled “Beauty.” It wasn’t that I felt Emerson had perfectly defined the elusive ideal in such a way that it removed all my trepidation regarding the term; instead, I was intrigued by how he used the way people relate to beauty in order to define what an artist is.
Regardless of whether a definition of Beauty can ever be agreed upon, I found myself drawn to Emerson’s description of an artist as a person who has a love for beauty “in such excess, that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms.” This interpretation suggests that the desire to create is deeply rooted within the artist and cannot be contained. It made an image in my mind of artists who are so overcome with passion that paintings, sculptures, and drawings virtually spill out of them.
…Returning to Emerson’s essay, he expands beyond the artist’s passion for Beauty, adding to the definition of an artist by claiming that art is “a nature, passed through the alembic of man.” He sets the artist up as an instrument through which our surroundings and ideals are refined and re-presented to an audience, charging the artist with the responsibility of teaching the general population on how to See. I write ‘See’ with a capital ‘S’ because I believe at the heart of his essay Emerson is calling his readers to look to Nature as the lens that will allow people to truly perceive and understand the world around them. I believe the distinction also reflects the mission of all artists to demonstrate to their audience how to look actively, not passively. And while Emerson always redirects the reader back to Nature as the ultimate teacher on how to ‘See,’ I believe that too often the general population disregards artists as careful observers of our world. Over the years artists have moved beyond being a conduit or refiner of beauty, to successfully presenting to the world everything from political, cultural, social, environmental, and personal ideas.
But I think that we can take the idea of artists teaching us to See, and the audience participating in the lesson, one step further, particularly as Christians: Artists who are Christians can look to the creation story as the example of the ultimate artist. Just as Emerson described the outpouring of love for beauty as the birth of the artist, I envision God’s overwhelming love as his impetus for creation. His love and desire were so great that for six days He made everything out of nothing and saw that is was good. It wasn’t until he made man in his image that he finally rested. Looking to this example, the role of artist takes on a weightier responsibility, especially as they are called to open our eyes to the creation already around us. Continue reading…
~
More from the Concerning Beauty Series:
photo of me c/o Amanda Vernon
