Translator: Nicoletta Pedrana Reviewer: Michele Gianella
What is the beauty of an artwork?
The common saying goes:
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
and this would lead us to think
that beauty must be subjective, come from personal values.
There is an implication in this sentence, though, we cannot deny:
"What is beautiful is not beautiful" [Literal from Italian].
And this goes to prove there must be a beauty
commonly, objectively
but also universally deemed as such.
I mean, the beauty of an artwork that transcends the latest fashion trends,
whose value lasts over time
because it conveys
the essence of our nature, of the human matrix.
Well, I would like to argue these considerations of mine
that come from years of studies in neuroscience, psychology
by presenting this simple image.
What I'm showing you
are the wonderful first steps into the world of portraying
of very young children.
It's the representation of a human body, obviously:
at three we only see a sketch
that gets more and more complex, rich with details
as the child grows.
And, although I may think
that these children are good, compared to their age,
at representing human shapes,
I certainly cannot consider them real artworks.
I don't know you, but I wouldn't put them on the fireplace in the living.
And you will say, of course, who has a fireplace in the living room?
However, you see, the parents of these children -
and I say parents as a label
for any person
with an emotional relationship with these children:
grandpas, uncles -
they don't think the same way:
when they look at this drawing, yes,
perhaps at first they would make
a somewhat cold, synthetic analysis of the drawing
but would quick go beyond that.
What they would begin to see are no longer these graphic signs,
which are clearly the result
of the child's still immature representational ability.
What they see is the evolutionary progress,
the development of these children
who are finally capable to draw, to do something that makes sense.
What they see
is the affective disposition of these children:
the affection of these children
who have done the drawing perhaps just for them.
What they see is the emotion of these children
while they show the drawing with pride, with satisfaction:
"Look what I have done!"
And this moves mom, dad, grandparents, uncles
who before the drawing think, It's beautiful!
See, when representation is felt in the essence of its value,
when it makes a sense, a meaning for the beholder,
it becomes beautiful in his eyes.
"Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", that's what the Brits say.
The artwork?
The artwork essentially does the same thing:
it produces an experience in the viewer much like that experienced by the parent,
with the difference
that it does not only work for mom, dad, grandparents and uncles
but for everyone.
How?
Through non-invasive brain imaging techniques,
we went to see what happens in people's brains
while staring at artworks
that we can easily deem beautiful.
Let's think of our classics of painting, the classics of sculpture
whose beauty is also defined by the harmony of proportions:
let's think of the golden proportion.
Here, when these people looked at images of art,
images of artistic works,
we saw in their brains that different areas were activated,
as is happening to you at this precise moment.
And overall,
all of these activations tell us a story
and teach us at least three things.
One: when we look at an artwork,
we do not see it only with our eyes,
we do not represent it only graphically, pictorially,
but we feel it.
We feel it physically, with our body:
the artwork is able to physically trigger us.
The second thing these studies teach us
is that when we look at a "beautiful" artwork,
it is capable of summoning emotions, feelings in us,
visceral experiences of well-being, but also discomfort.
And the third thing these studies teach us
is that through the artwork we are able to enter
someone else's experience and past.
In other words,
we let the experience, the past of someone else into us.
And this is very important
because it means that when we look at a "beautiful" artwork,
the experience we experience is not only ours
but brings with it the experience and the past of someone else.
Whose past?
Of the artist, of course.
An artist who was able,
through the skillful use
of shapes, colors, dimensions, spaces, symmetries, proportions, perspectives
but also violations of the rules,
to tell his vision of the world,
to tell his representation of reality,
one of his inner experience, his personal experience:
one that, through the artwork, becomes a shared experience.
But if you think about it,
we are structured the same way, biologically speaking
and therefore our processes are shared and "shareable".
And the more the story of the artwork
approaches our personal experience,
the more the work will be evocative for us:
this is why some works speak to us more than others.
And the work that will be able to have that effect on us
can be called "beautiful work".
Just as, in his personal experience,
the parent no longer sees the lines and circles
but is absorbed by the essence of the meaning of his child's drawing,
so, in his shared experience,
the spectator, the artwork observer.
will be absorbed by the essence of the experience
that the skilled artist has been able to communicate and convey
through the artwork.
And the artwork does this for everyone.
It does that indiscriminately, answers to no one.
However, not all of us are always able to grasp the effect.
Plato said, in his objectivist vision of beauty:
"Beauty is the property of an object
to evoke and trigger a pleasant experience
in any predisposed spectator".
In any predisposed spectator!
You don't have to be knowledgeable
to appreciate the beauty of an artwork:
culture does not make the difference.
What makes the real difference
is our predisposition,
our attitude towards the work.
We could cross Florence a thousand times
and never feel truly moved by the beauty around you.
Or we could stop in front of an artwork,
enter a state that we can define as immersive, contemplative
and let the work do its work:
let its dialogue with us begin.
And then here is where the magic happens.
So here in front of Michelangelo's David
we will no longer see just a well-made sculpture
but we will begin to appreciate the posture,
to notice the fine line of the veins,
to feel with our body, physically,
the tension of the muscles or even the relaxation,
to enter the depth of a gaze that looks at something on the horizon.
And then we will question ourselves,
and, when we are completely immersed in this experience
away from the voices,
from the gazes of the people around us,
then we can continue,
we can begin to feel this inner movement,
try this visceral experience this bodily experience,
but also to be transported to places we have never been to
or where we never wanted to go,
and when I talk about places, I don't just mean physical places
but also inner places, as true art can do this too.
And there will we taste the true essence of beauty.
A beauty that is not the beauty of the David per se;
but of the experience we are living through the David.
An experience that is universal
as we are all part of a system that moves according to the same dynamics.
And, as long as human nature stays as we know it,
as we know it today, and at any time,
meeting a David we will think: "How beautiful!" .
Thank you.
(Applause)