What is it that One sees in the Art of Another?

While studying for an upcoming exam, I took the time today for a bit of daydreaming. I was looking at a slide of the interior of Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane when I began to wonder just what it is that one finds pleasurable by observing architecture, works of fine art, literature, and poetry. I mean besides the formal qualities of the work, what is there that humans find appealing?

I began to think that for myself anyways, when I look at an artistic expression of an individual it seems to me that for the first time I am given a true glance into the consciousness of that individual. Think about this for a moment. When are we ever truly given such moments of understanding between two individuals? One could live for thirty years with a significant other and still could not ever come close to understanding exactly what the other’s experience of reality means to them. Such things are not transferable through concrete means it would seem; rather they are best conveyed through our creative faculties.

Someone may point out that San Carlo is most definitely a concrete object, but this would be misinterpreting the meaning of what is being said here. The experience of standing in the interior of such a building, it is the space that one experiences not the concrete object which defines that space. In this sense the undulating lines and focus on ovals and triangles which are seen in Borromini’s work creates a definitive feeling of space being pushed and pulled for the individual standing within them. The originality of Borromini perhaps reflects the character of what we know from historical texts was a dark and disturbed individual; the introverted and troubled artist who eventually committed suicide.

Could Borromini have expressed his torment in any superior form than what is seen in his architecture? It could be put forward that he could have simply written what he felt down and had others read what had been expressed. However such words can only express ideas, meaningless and general words such as anger and sadness. These words are useless for our true comprehension of what is being felt, for who has ever experienced only one kind of anger and one kind of sadness? Every experience of emotion is different than the last in some significant form.

This perhaps is at least partially behind what the value of art means to us. A good poem never says in a straight forward manner what is trying to be expressed, it must achieve an expression through the abstraction of language. In the same way architecture, the fine arts and other great works of literature may be understood as giving us true glimpses into the minds of other conscious individuals. Perhaps it is the realization of understanding those consciousnesses that is in some way appealing to us as sentient beings.