Analyzing Walter Horatio Pater´s Aesthetic Criticism

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Walter Horatio Pater gives art critic’s some very pertinent advice about what constitutes true beauty in aestheticism in the overall schema of good art criticism. He describes beauty as being something that has no formula, that it is something we find through our own experiences, impressions, and senses; through this we can, according to Pater, “see the object as in itself it really is.” Thus, with this idea in mind, art critics should find the source of what sparked their interest in the first place, that being the impression of beauty and pleasure. Pater describes to us that the aesthetic critic must distinguish, analyze, and separate any confounding factors that led to the source of his impression and the conditions which produced it. He creates a respectable analogy for aesthetic criticism as being something similar to how a chemist makes notes to describe some natural element. This is a perfect analogy as the chemist must analyze the natural elements to others in a way that is both eminent and crucial to their understanding of whatever it is that they are seeing. Thus, his purpose is the same rationale as the aesthetic critic’s is to be, that of analyzing the objects and reducing it down to its bare element; therefore distilling its true purpose of being there. Lastly, Pater argues that it is exceedingly important for an art critic to not have any preset definition of what is abstract beauty; but rather to have a certain kind of attribute in their personality, that being of one who is stimulated and in a state of child like ecstasy in seeing any genuine work of art.

Pater chose the Renaissance to make his points about aesthetic criticism for many reasons. He was both influenced by the sheer intellect and imaginatio...

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...nything truly worthwhile, genuine, or meaningful in our truth to find the meaning of life and of ourselves. He tells us, the reader, not to submit to a superficial train of thought that plagues Philosophers like Comte, or even our own in critiquing art and finding meaning. Consequently, if we chose to follow this superficial method, we would lose our true sense and emotional attachment to the artwork we are viewing; and thus we would be without the passion and the everlasting flame that burns ceaselessly within ourselves for the wonders of life and art. Passion for the arts is his final word for the viewer, as there is nothing more important than having passion for what you do and this in turn will invigorate your life, much in the same way as genuine art opens up the eyes of the spectator and thus transporting him to a world filled with imagination and splendor.

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