Jurate Macnoriute
Characteristics of Spirituality. Beauty, Goodness. Genre and Spirituality
In this chapter I try to explain features of spirituality in more broadly way.As it is stated in the introduction, the material sense of spirituality shows that religious art is spirituality or spiritual. The immaterial sense shows that spirituality is relating to the subjects: the golden ratio; feelings and what arouse them; presence of style; ghost; mood; intended, but not spilled out meaning; inspired creative working; heart and love, but not mind.
Let us group these senses of spirituality into larger classes.
According to dictionaries religion is a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny. Religious art represents stories of religious sacred writings. It may be united under one category with presence of the supernatural or ghost.
Presence of the divine proportion or the golden ratio, style, and inspired creative working helps for representation of perfection and beauty, for creation an outstanding examples, they may be united into the second group.
The third category of spirituality may include senses relating to feelings: heart and love, but not mind, sincerity, intuition, courage, a positive feeling of liking, an inclination or tendency of a certain kind, the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience, feelings and what arouse them like beauty, the qualities that give pleasure to the senses, emotional or moral sensitivity (especially in relation to personal principles or dignity), and presence of mood, a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling.
Inspired creative working may be ascribed to the third category though it participates in the second group too, because it opens way for outlet of feelings in artistic form. Thus second and third groups of senses as if relative.
Beauty is something what arouses feelings. Beauty, as a combination of qualities that give pleasure to the senses, connects the second category with the third (heart, a positive feeling of liking, goodness). If in the second group beauty unfolds physically, in the third -- psychically. It is known that in history of visual arts beauty and brightness were considered as similar to goodness, when ugliness and darkness to evil.
Open or intended meaning of communication, a general concept, goes alone. Thus it may be the forth kind of spirituality. Conceptual art represented by concepts free from work of art and artistic ability contents this forth pure manifestation of spirituality.
In short form the classification of senses of spirituality may seem so:
1. The supernatural (by stories of religious books, ghost).
2. Beauty (the golden ratio, style, ideal, perfection, inspired creative working).
3. Feelings (heart and love, feelings and what arouse them, morality, mood, inspired creative working).
4. Presence of meaning or purport of communication.
The first group or kind of spirituality belongs to realm of faith (the supernatural). Faith may be understood not only as religious, but also as faith to some ideas, to authority, etc. The question is -- is spiritual fascistic art? Fascists also have the faith to their supremacy over some nations and ethnicities, to the fight against some political systems. I have watched German Nazis posters of World War Two and tried to understand how could they help to boost totally esprit de corps and fanaticism of German nation for such bloody march. Free from spirituality things could not execute such. It follows that faith and spirituality can be bad.
The second group belongs to realm of mind and formalism (the golden ratio, style).
The third group belongs to realm of psychology and ethics (heart, feelings, mood).
The forth group belongs to realm of conceptuality (ideas and meaning).
Now question is risen so -- how many features from listed above are needful that artwork should be termed spiritual? Essential and tolerable condition is one feature, because in description of spirituality these features stand as different senses. But the more features the higher degree of spirituality. If some work of art contends all conditions of spirituality, it is spiritual in the highest degree. For example, if conceptual art contends only last condition -- presence of meaning or purport of communication, it follows that conceptual art can be spiritual, but it has the lowest degree of spirituality.
Genre and Spirituality Sublime arts do not contradict religious art, and the sense of faith remains in them though their subjects are not religious. But some genres like caricature and cartoon are contradicting faith of themselves. It is because caricatures and cartoons' essence and purpose are the breaking of faiths in way of detection of inner contradictions. Often caricatures and cartoons are free from beauty, they have ugly crafted ugly things and do not contend second conditions of spirituality. Thus caricature, cartoon and works of similar genres have less chance to be spiritual than serious or decorative visual arts.
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Thus in this chapter I divided the senses of spirituality into four groups or levels and formed such scale:
1. The supernatural (by stories of religious books, ghost) belonging to realm of religion and faith.
2. Beauty (the golden ratio, style, ideal, perfection, inspired creative working) belonging to realm of mind and formalism. Here beauty unfolds physically on the outside.
3. Feelings (heart and love, feelings and what arouse them, morality, mood, inspired creative working) belonging to realm of psychology and ethics. Here beauty unfolds psychically inside.
4. Presence of meaning or purport of communication belonging to realm of thought and conceptuality.
I ascertained also that spirituality of works of art of itself depends on art genre. Some genres of themselves are more spiritual, some less.
All articles on theme spirituality of art
- Halo in European Art. Recognition of Picture Figures. Semantic Level of Art Analysis
Proportions of the Golden Ratio and Whole Numbers Determining Character of Spirituality in Art
- The Closing Section of Research Into Spirituality Of Art
Copyright © Jurate Macnoriute