Visual arts have been a source of visual delight throughout history, shaped by disciplines and boundaries that various artists have formalized over time. However, nature and beauty standards have played a significant role in artistic compositions from ancient Greece to the present. We manifest a kind of mimesis with matter, which can be molded and transformed to evoke numerous thoughts and emotions in the viewer throughout human history. Certain figures have been part of this artistic appreciation and critique, focusing their visual perspective on plastic manifestations inspired by nature’s raw materials. Nevertheless, the appreciation of artistic beauty is ever-changing but remains eternal as long as the audience can detect and contemplate this element. Even in the 21st century, while reading writings from the 18th to the 20th centuries, we still tend to use characteristics of antiquity and the past to determine beauty in contemporary works. However, we should not mix past determinations with the movements of our present.

Based on Denis Diderot’s definition of art in Judgment and the Public Sphere, art is an abstract metaphysics. Humanity began by collecting observations based on nature, analyzing their function, use, and symbolic qualities. The focus of these observations was eventually named either science or art, leading to a series of instruments and rules aimed at those objects. However, this is an 18th-century perspective, formulated before the emergence of movements that would gradually challenge this view. Diderot also states that the general purpose of art is to imprint specific forms onto a basic element provided by nature. To be able to deform matter, we must first master it in its natural environment, regardless of its form, size, or mass. This implies that the artist must be fully aware of their surroundings to depict and reconstruct them effectively.

On the other hand, John Ruskin, in his Selections: On Realization (2005), challenges us by asking not what we can paint, but how far we can go in painting. How far can humans go in using nature to achieve an aesthetically beautiful level in art? The elements each artist chooses for their composition are crucial in determining their education, discipline, and creativity. These elements can provoke emotions and appear close to reality, even if they are not entirely real or naturally occurring (such as figures Ruskin mentions that seem capable of movement despite being depicted in a two-dimensional medium). An individual is also drawn to beauty, complexity, and color selection, which provide an opportunity to recall personal anecdotes while experiencing visual delight. It is as if we “reflect visual aspects as if we were mirrors” and grant them aesthetic importance. An artist should not be considered great solely for their technical skill but also for the details they incorporate into their composition.

Johann Winckelmann states that one must become familiar with the art of ancestors to become a great artist. He is correct in asserting that new artistic trends can be developed through this understanding. It is not about imitating ancient Greek artists but recognizing that they were guided by nature, which they saw as the epitome of perfection. Winckelmann highlights the movement of nerves and muscles in the various bodily structures depicted in works by Raphael and Michelangelo. One of the most distinctive characteristics of ancient Greek art is the noble simplicity and silent grandeur reflected in both posture and expression. Laocoön and His Sons, created by Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus of Rhodes, serves as an example of the meticulous study of human anatomy, showcasing facial articulations, muscular tensions, and other bodily details that convey pain without fear. The calmer the body’s state, the greater the ability to portray the true personality of the soul amid sublime suffering. However, it is evident that these sculpted expressions do not align with what a human being would actually feel or experience, yet they demonstrate mastery over the human figure in mythological scenes.

In various sections of The Painter of Modern Life (1863), Charles Baudelaire discusses the perspective of art enthusiasts: not everything revolves around those high-caliber artists who have demonstrated mastery of mimesis and classicism, which had prevailed in artists like Raphael, previously mentioned. The artistic compositions of the past may be of great interest in creating in our present, not only because of their high aesthetic level but also due to their historical and cultural value. However, they should not continue to be oversaturated as they have been for centuries. We can apply the same exercise to contemporary creations; beauty is an invariable, eternal, and difficult-to-define element, dependent on fashion, era, morality, and passion.

In The Moment of Art, Émile Zola expresses that a work of art is, in contrast, an expression of an individual’s personality rather than mere mimesis: the artist deposits everything that makes up their being—their body and soul—clearly expressing the strength and uniqueness of their mind, the rawness and power of their personality, and taking nature into their hands to manipulate it firmly as they choose to perceive it. This means that in the present, we have moved away from using mimesis to delight in plasticity, gradually liberating the artist to produce life itself, the creation of something never before seen by the creator’s eyes and temperament. Two essential elements of artistic work emerge from this: nature as a reality and the human being as a personal element. Unlike others, Zola values the idea that the artistic community should not limit itself to the form and aesthetics of nature but rather consider the personal and individual essence of the creator as part of the creative process and outcome.

Beauty and nature have always been progenitors of the greatest artistic designs and creations, transforming over time and gradually breaking free from the constraints of reality. Depending on historical circumstances and artistic education, we can also determine the elements that spectators use to define art. However, our artists will always begin with the legacy of ancient history to leave their own small imprint on society. A common element between beauty and nature is their much-discussed eternity and evolution, where the observer focuses their gaze and delights in something different—yet always within an essential fragment of the personal and vital experience of every artist.