Vermeer, The Art of Painting, 1667
Put usefulness first and you lose it. Put beauty first and what you do will be useful forever. It turns out that nothing is more useful than the useless. We see this in traditional architecture with its decorative details. Ornaments liberate us from the tyranny of the useful and satisfy our need for harmony. In a strange way they make us feel at home. They remind us that we have more than practical needs. We are not just governed by animal appetites, like eating and sleeping. We have spiritual and moral needs too and if those needs go unsatisfied, so do we.
- Roger Scruton
Put usefulness first and you lose it. Put beauty first and what you do will be useful forever. It turns out that nothing is more useful than the useless. We see this in traditional architecture with its decorative details. Ornaments liberate us from the tyranny of the useful and satisfy our need for harmony. In a strange way they make us feel at home. They remind us that we have more than practical needs. We are not just governed by animal appetites, like eating and sleeping. We have spiritual and moral needs too and if those needs go unsatisfied, so do we.
We all know what it is like, even in the everyday world, suddenly to be transported by the things we see, from the ordinary world of our appetites to the illuminated sphere of contemplation. A flash of sunlight, a remembered melody, the face of someone loved – these dawn on us in the most distracted moments and suddenly life is worthwhile. These are timeless moments in which we feel the presence of another and higher world.
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