The Elements of Beauty According to Avicennian Philosophy

Aesthetics conceived as the study of aesthetic properties requires some conception of when a property is an aesthetic one, an issue which is discussed in Islamic philosophy as well. Thus, the present inquiry aims to explore the aesthetic properties known as the elements and criteria of beauty in terms of Ibn Sina’s Philosophy. I also track down the Avicennian criteria of beauty within the Islamic arts namely calligraphy, Persian painting, and music to see how the criteria of beauty find expression in the practical arena of Islamic arts. On the basis of the outline given in this inquiry, I segregate the intellectual and sensible criteria. Since proportion is the key term in Avicennian thoughts of beauty, I divide the sensible criteria of beauty into three sections: proportion between the different parts of a work of art, the proportion between the form and the content, and proportion between the audiences and the artworks. Then, I explore the criteria of beauty in Islamic art treatises and historical literature. And I compare the criteria of the two arenas through a descriptive-analytical method. The findings reveal that the criteria of beauty in the artworks have similarities with Ibn- Sina’s criteria in a way that one would use Ibn Sina’s criteria of beauty as a pattern to classify the criteria in Islamic artworks. Both Ibn Sina and artists appeal to employ the criteria for aesthetic describing and judging of beautiful things. As aesthetic properties, the criteria of beauty can be divided into two types; the manifest-appearing properties (i.e. the properties that show how things look and sound) and response-dependent (perceiver-dispositional) properties. The division raises the issue that Ibn Sina and the artists believe there is a connection between the possession of criteria of beauty by an object and having a distinctive response by perceivers with different cultural backgrounds. Finally, it is indicative that the elements of beauty are not an abstract issue discussed theoretically in the philosophical arena; rather they have been practiced in Islamic artworks. Therefore, the criteria of beauty would be considered the point of intersection between Islamic philosophy and Islamic art.