In any case, what is of value is that in both
old and new languages The Beautiful is reflected
by nouns and adjectives derived from the same
root: kallos and kalon, pulchritudo and pulcher,
bellezza and bello, frumusete and frumos. It is also
known that the Greeks have used two forms for The
Beautiful, the substantivised adjective as tó Kalon
for beauty and they have kept kallos as the
abstract notion.
“The Beautiful is in beauty – the shapes; in
shapes – the proportions; in proportions – the
numbers” Saint Augustine
We can distinguish betwee n a theory and a
definition regarding The Beautiful. Is acceptable to
say that when one says that beauty is “what likes
when it is watched”, we give a definition of
beauty, and when we say, for instance, that
“beauty lies in the choice proportions in the
appropriate arrangement of parts, in fact, the size,
quality and quantity and their relation” we then
formulate a theory of beauty.
In the first case, a definition will tell us how to
recognize beauty, and in the second, a theory
explicitly asks us to say how The Beautiful can be
explained. Such comprehensive and longevive
theory of The Beautiful is called “The Grand
Theory”. The Pythagoreans were the ones who
have initiated this theory, but it traversed the times
thereafter, remaining almost unchanged until the
XVIIth century. This Grand Theory has the quality
that is applied in plastic arts and music alike.
The essential attribute of this theory is the idea of
proportion, symmetry and harmony. According to
this theory, The Beautiful appears only in the
objects in which these parties relate to each
other in simple numbers. More specifically: the fair
and consistent composition of all things
composed come from the five proportions found
amongst the four simple numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4.
“The Golden Number is the secret mysterious
number after which all life species were made, all
that has appeared in water, earth and air. It is the
same fundamental number (φ) after which the
man was made and it is the same with the
number for Love and Grace as well as salvation
and final rebirth in Spirit. ” words written by the
famous German Christian visionary Jakob Lorber,
a divine dictation considered by the author to be
the words of Jesus Christ
It is considered, also that there are some
related theses for the Grand Theory: 1. The
rational character of The Beautiful; 2. The
quantitative nature of The Beautiful, 3. The
objective character of The Beautiful 4. The
metaphysical dimension of The Beautiful
(as said by Pythagoreans and Heraclitus,
and Christian thinkers).
Other definitions
beauty
and
perspectives
of
Folklore has significantly defined the
fundamental issue of beauty in saying: “It is
not beautiful what is beautiful, it’s beautiful
what I like.” The expression “beauty is in the
eye of the beholder” expresses the same
thing .
The perception of beauty being
intimately related to specificity and
everyone’s character is shown also by the
saying: “Tastes shall not be discussed”.
The Beautiful is therefore perceived
within the relationship between the
observer, what is contemplated and what
is considered by that person to be
beautifull as well. The perception of
beauty is closely related to the individual
emotional, mental and spiritual make.