The concept of beauty for humans seems (to me) to be among the most relative subjects, changing according time, space and cultural settings. What is “beautiful” now a days within a globalized western culture differs a lot from what it used to be for the pre- Columbian cultures, per say the Mayan culture. They certainly had a sense of beauty that was quite different from ours: slanted foreheads, slightly crossed-eyes, nose that appears broken, elongated neck, pierced ears, lips and nose, tattooed bodies so on… whereas for now those notions seem to be different what I find in common is the human aspiration for beauty, something really to strive for.
I was born in a country in which people have developed a cult around sculpted and delineated bodies and faces leading to a superficial understanding of the subject matter, as if beauty was only skin deep.
What is beauty then? Personally, seems to expand beyond physicality, an inner state rather, something gestated within that inevitable translates without.
What triggers that perception of being or seeing something very alluring?
Certain works of art do! and have the capacity of making us respond, return to an original state by feeling mysteriously attracted, a dynamic connected also with qualities such as: surprise, elation, exaltation, enabling a self-transcendent experience.