Single Idea 20271

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 4. Beauty]

Full Idea

By beauty in art one always understands imitation of happiness.

Gist of Idea

Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 433)

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Dawn (Daybreak) (v 5)', ed/tr. Smith, Brittain [Stanford 2011], p.225


A Reaction

I'm not sure how one goes about imitating happiness. One can replicate things that make us happy, like a nice landscape. But some beauty in art is also novel, and produces a new sort of happiness. Kandinsky.