« epitaphs | Main | art is one's heart-blood »
January 4, 2008
the presence of god
Beauty captivates the flesh in order to obtain permission to pass right to the soul.
A work of art has an author and yet, when it is perfect, it has something which is essentially anonymous about it. It imitates the anonymity of divine art. In the same way the beauty of the world proves there to be a God who is personal and impersonal at the same time, and is neither the one nor the other separately.
In everything which gives us the pure authentic feeling of beauty there is really the presence of God. There is, as it were, an incarnation of God in the world, and it is indicated by beauty. The beautiful is the experimental proof that the incarnation is possible. Hence all art of the highest order is religious in essence (That is what people have forgotten today). A Gregorian melody is as powerful as the death of a martyr.
Simone Weil
Posted by amin at January 4, 2008 4:26 PM