Balthus’s inclusion of cats in his paintings of young girls elevates the aesthetic quality of his portraiture by forcing observers to confront the nature of their gaze.
Despite the fact that ancient Greeks would most certainly have found white marble sculptures to be ugly and bare, scholars have chosen to perpetuate the idea that white marble was/is the pinnacle of Grecian beauty in art.
"Hegel suggested that the end of art is the concentrated essence of spirit, of the soul that does not need any medium to convey its spirit." How do Hegelian ideas square with art in the two centuries following his death?