Beauty and the Soul

Great beauty produces a rapture in the soul, and in the soul of an artist this rapture is more intense than it is in the soul of the average individual. When the artist produces a work of art which he considers to be beautiful it is because he is experiencing the rapture of the soul which compels him to express these emotions in his art. I’m sure Van Gogh felt this rapture when he looked upon a starry night. Gauguin must have felt it in Tahiti when he saw the harmony of man and nature. I feel this heightened rapture of the soul when I look at a young girl who is innocently unselfconscious of her loveliness.

Proverbial wisdom tells us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there is an undeniable universal beauty in the world masterpieces of art, music, theater, and dance. We can define a masterpiece as that which has the universal power and beauty to move us more profoundly than an “ordinary” work of art. Great beauty stirs the soul to unknown depths of rapture while at the same time raising it to new heights of enlightenment. In short, great beauty is an enigma that moves the soul in ways we cannot understand.